Welsh Fiction

Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic—written in time for the 1843 holiday season—sold out its initial printing of 6,000 copies in one day. It remains Dickens’ most widely read and best-loved work, guaranteed to warm and uplift with the simplicity of its message and the depth of its honest truths. Bah! Humbug! It’s Christmas Eve and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is in a foul temper—good cheer and joyful spending turn his very insides to vinegar.

Under Western Eyes, Conrad's novel of political treachery and oppression, begins with a bomb that kills a hated Russian minister of police along with innocent bystanders. A young student named Razumov hides the perpetrator, then betrays him and becomes a spy among his exiled comrades. He faces a moral dilemma from which there is no escape. This masterwork, published six years before the Russian Revolution, is a chillingly accurate prophecy of what was to come.

1984. Bessie is a confident sixteen-year-old girl with the world at her feet, dreaming of what life will bring and what she’ll bring to this life. Then everything comes crashing down. Her bright and trusting smile is lost, banished by shame - and a secret she’ll carry with her for the rest of her life. 2021. The last thirty-seven years have not been easy for Bess. At fifty-three she is visibly weary, and her marriage to Mario is in tatters. Watching her son in newlywed bliss - the hope, the trust, the joy - Bess knows it is time to face her own demons.

Oscar Wilde's first play confronts the hypocrisy of public "morality" compared with genuine, private kindness. The reasons for its continued popularity are not difficult to identify: the play's witty dialogue contains many of Wilde's most quoted aphorisms, its stylish setting provides opportunities for elegant presentation, and its cast of memorable characters play out a story which is genuinely moving. This new audio production brings together a full cast worthy of Wilde's creative genius.

"The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in 8 Fits" is usually thought of as a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes with infinite humour the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature. The poem borrows occasionally from Carroll's short poem "Jabberwocky" in "Through the Looking Glass" (especially the poem's creatures and portmanteau words), but it is a stand-alone work, first published in 1876 by Macmillan.

À Middlemarch, cité imaginaire de la province anglaise, vers 1830, la jeune et intelligente Dorothée aspire à de grandes réalisations. Elle épouse le pasteur Casaubon, beaucoup plus âgé qu'elle et espère aider son mari dans les travaux de recherche pour un livre qui devrait être son chef d'œuvre. Mais Casaubon ne la prend pas sérieux, la néglige. De plus, il prend ombrage de l'amitié qui rapproche Will Ladislaw, son cousin, et Dorothée. Ce mariage se révèle être une erreur.

En 1651, Robinson Crusoé quitte York, en Angleterre pour naviguer, contre la volonté de ses parents qui voulaient qu'il devienne avocat. Le navire est arraisonné par des pirates de Salé et Crusoé devient l'esclave d'un Maure. Il parvient à s'échapper sur un bateau et ne doit son salut qu'à un navire portugais qui passe au large de la côte ouest de l'Afrique. Arrivé au Brésil, Crusoé devient le propriétaire d'une plantation.

When Drasko, a nine-year-old thief from the slums, is presented with a once-in-a-lifetime offer, life takes him to a far-away land on the hunt for diamonds. Twenty years later, Drasko Mawr, now the wealthiest diamond miner in the world, comes back to London. And he must play a dangerous game—a deal he has signed with blood.

Two all-time classic stories brought together in a single book, written by English author Lewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, commonly referred to as Alice in Wonderland is a tale of a young girl who falls down a large rabbit hole and finds herself in a fantasy world filled with every kind of creature imaginable including the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar and the King of Hearts!

Rainbow Valley was written in 1919 by L. M. Montgomery for the series that began with Anne of Green Gables. Anne and Gilbert's children are growing up! Their new friends, the Merediths, live in the Manse nearby. When the Merediths aren't playing in the graveyard or riding pigs through town, they meet up with the Blythes to play, fish, and study insects in Rainbow Valley!

Mae atgofion hunllefus achosion y gorffennol wedi gorfodi Taliesin i ymddeol fel ditectif. Mae e'n cyfrannu i bodlediad am Droseddau Gwir a phan fo linc i lofruddiaeth yn ei gyrraedd ef a Mari, y cyflwynydd, mae'n sylweddoli bod yna debygrwydd rhwng y weithred dywyll a'r hyn maen nhw wedi bod yn ei drafod Ar Ffeil Drosedd. Ond pwy yw'r llofrudd a pham mae'n e'n edrych i'r gorffennol?

Since the tragic loss of her parents, Enid has lived alone in a coastal cottage in Jersey. But this year someone new has come into her life: Fred, who truly gets her, and who knows how to make her happy. The only problem is that Enid has Asperger’s and doesn’t like to leave her comfort zone - and Fred lives in Australia. Like Enid, Fred has survived heartbreak and is searching for a way to start again. Could a stranger on the other side of the world really bring new meaning to his life, or is he just setting himself up for another fall?

It’s been fifteen years since Rosamunde last lived at the vicarage in Potter’s Cove, the pretty coastal village where she grew up, experienced her first true love - and a heartbreak that changed her life forever. But now Potter’s Cove is calling her back: it’s time to make peace with the past and go home. Rosamunde’s return to the vicarage in the days before Christmas is a whirlwind of festive cheer and heartwarming reunions with friends, family and her loving father, the vicar.

This collection brings together stories by Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield, Wilkie Collins and Marcel Proust, with forays into the supernatural and the comedic by Sabine Baring-Gould and Saki. Be them funny or moving, all stories are beautifully read by Harriet Walter (Atonement, Netflix’s The Crown), Juliet Stevenson (Bend it Like Beckham, The Enfield Haunting), Barbara Leigh-Hunt (Pride and Prejudice, Billy Elliot) and Rosalind Ayres (Titanic, Outnumbered).

Here is a delightful look at childhood, written by master poet and storyteller Robert Louis Stevenson. In this collection A Child's Garden of Verses of 64 poems, Stevenson recalls the joys of his childhood, from sailing boats down a river, to waiting for the lamplighter, to sailing off to foreign lands in his imagination. Nothing has ever been written that appeals to a child's nature more than A Child's Garden of Verses. It is written in a simple verse that a child can readily understand.

Ayanna Crawford isn’t afraid to get physical; in fact, it’s her job. A world-renowned physical therapist who works too hard, Ayanna embarks on a trip to Ireland before an upcoming conference. Finally, a chance to play as hard as she works...and maybe find an Irish boo to keep her company. After a long day of sightseeing, Ayanna hits it off with tall drink of ale Eoghan O’Farrell. Then there’s the freckled, blue-eyed Shane MacCallum, a soccer team liaison who Ayanna feels a urge to “liaise” with. But not only do the two men work for the same team - they’re best mates.

Mae Alaw Mai wedi cael llond bol o weithio fel cynhyrchydd ar raglen foreol Pawb FM. A hithau wedi rhoi pymtheg mlynedd o wasanaeth i Richie Edwards ar Bore Da, Rich, mae Alaw bellach yn bored 'da Rich. Pryd ddaw ei chyfle hi i serennu? Mae bywyd yn rhy fyr i gael ei bwlio gan y cyflwynydd hunanbwysig, ac i drafod gwau a chryd cymalau gyda'r gwrandawyr. Mae angen newid cyfeiriad arni, ac yn fwy na dim, mae angen dyn!

After cutting Aram Petrosyan's trafficking operation off at the knees, Detective Jamie Johansson and her new ward Alina are square in the crosshairs. Retribution must be had, and to carry out the task, Petrosyan unleashes upon them a man like no other. The Nhang moves without being seen and kills without mercy. And he's coming for them both. Can Jamie stay one step ahead of this deadly new adversary? She'll have to use all of the skills at her disposal if she hopes to survive and finally close in on the elusive Aram Petrosyan.

The Welsh Triads (Trioedd Ynys Prydein, 'Triads of the Island of Britain') are a group medieval manuscripts which preserve fragments of Welsh folklore, mythology and traditional history in the form of wise sayings. The triads are terse statements of three related facts - probably to make them easier to remember. The oldest triads predate Christianity, their origins lost in the dark ages. Yet they show clearly that far from being barbarians, our ancient forefathers lived according to an advanced level of philosophy and ethics.

Everything is all fun and games until living on the "wild" side becomes the rule instead of the exception. It's good to be bad... within reason, of course. And in this case? It's very, very good.