麻豆社

Joe Moran explores why shyness is such a pervasive human trait. Read by Nigel Planer.

Shrinking Violets homepage

Paul MacAlindin tells the story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.

Upbeat homepage

Paul Morley reads his personal account of the life, impact and legacy of David Bowie.

The Age of Bowie homepage

Lindsay Duncan reads from a new biography of the much-loved 20th century children's writer

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature homepage

Rebecca Front reads Bernadette Murphy's account of her mission to solve an art mystery.

Van Gogh's Ear: The True Story homepage

Philip Eade's revealing biography of the celebrated English novelist

Evelyn Waugh: A Life Revisited homepage

Geoff Dyer's travel essays, abridged by Katrin Williams and read by Alex Jennings.

White Sands homepage

Siddhartha Mukherjee's intimate history of one of the most powerful ideas in science.

The Gene homepage

Margo Jefferson's memoir asks what it means to be born both black and privileged.

Negroland homepage

Katherine Wilson's warm tale of discovering love, food and family the Neapolitan way.

Only in Naples homepage

Dahl's letters to his mother, Sofie Magdalene, abridged for radio by Katrin Williams

Love from Boy - Roald Dahl's Letters to His Mother homepage

Aarathi Prasad explores the ancient and modern in Indian medicine. Read by Sudha Bhuchar.

In the Bonesetter's Waiting Room homepage

The story of Russian writer Teffi's eventful flight from her home country.

Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea homepage

Drawing on her own experience, Lynsey Hanley explores class aspiration and social mobility

Respectable homepage

Juliet Nicolson's memoir of seven generations of women in her family.

A House Full of Daughters homepage

Sarah Bakewell interweaves biography and philosophy to tell the story of existentialism.

At the Existentialist Cafe homepage

Life with the Tackas Quartet is recollected by its first violinist Edward Dusinberre.

Beethoven for a Later Age homepage

Searingly honest memoir by Marceline Loridan-Ivens about surviving the Holocaust.

But You Did Not Come Back homepage

Wide-ranging essays from Henning Mankell, creator of Wallander. Read by Tim Pigott-Smith

Henning Mankell - Quicksand homepage

Ian McKellen reads Seamus Heaney's translation of Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid.

Seamus Heaney's Aeneid Book VI homepage

Luc Sante's journey through the dark side of Paris that was, read by Simon Russell Beale

The Other Paris homepage

By George Goodwin. Account of scientist Benjamin Franklin's time living in London

Benjamin Franklin in London homepage

By Ben Rawlence. Stories that show what life is like in Dadaab refugee camp

City of Thorns homepage

Dame Joan Bakewell takes stock of her life as she enters her ninth decade.

Stop the Clocks homepage

Volker Weidermann's account of the resort of Ostend in 1936

Summer Before the Dark homepage

Amy Liptrot's incisive memoir of overcoming alcoholism amid the luminous Orkney landscape.

The Outrun homepage

Laura Cumming charts the obsession of a 19th-century Reading bookseller with a portrait.

The Vanishing Man homepage

By Patrick McGilligan. Biography of the early years of Orson Welles.

Young Orson homepage

A history of 20th-century Germany revealed through the inhabitants of one wooden house

The House by the Lake: A Story of Germany homepage