Untitled playlist books

Untitled playlist

Discover who we are and how we got here by listening to comedian and student of history David Mitchell's UNRULY: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain.

Think you know your kings and queens? Think again.

In UNRULY, David Mitchell explores how England's monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects' destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky sods who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.

Taking us right back to King Arthur (spoiler: he didn't exist), David tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I (spoiler: she dies). It's a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and at least one total Cnut, as the population evolved from having their crops nicked by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.

How this happened, who it happened to and why it matters in modern Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and won't let it off the hook for the mess it's made.

A funny book about a serious subject, UNRULY is for anyone who has ever wondered how we got here - and who is to blame.

Read by David Mitchell.

King Aethelred the Unready

King Arthur

This audiobook is narrated by Jodie Comer (Killing Eve, The Last Duel, The End We Start From), who won Best Actress in both the Tony and Olivier awards for her performance in the theatre production of Prima Facie. Her performance in the play was lauded as "infusing breath-taking emotional drama into every word" (Guardian), with "tremendous skill and improbable stamina" (New York Times). Here she returns to Tessa in this intimate and skillful performance.

From the Olivier award-winning playwright of Prima Facie Suzie Miller comes her first novel, where power, patriarchy and morality diverge.

‘This is not life. This is law.’
 
Tessa Ensler is a brilliant barrister who's forged her career in criminal defence through sheer determination. Since her days at Cambridge, she’s carefully disguised her working class roots in a male-dominated world where who you know is just as important as what you know. Driven by her belief in the right to a fair trial and a taste for victory, there’s nothing Tessa loves more than the thrill of getting her clients acquitted.
 
It seems like Tessa has it made when she is approached for a new job and nominated for the most prestigious award in her field. But when a date with a charismatic colleague goes horribly wrong, Tessa finds that the rules she’s always played by might not protect her, forcing her to question everything she's ever believed in…
 
'Enthralling and sharp-witted . . . Highly recommended' Karin Slaughter 

'Bold, fearless, heartbreakingly timeless. Written with skill, humour, despair and hope, Prima Facie is a deeply rewarding, absolute must read' Chris Whitaker

'Miller's star shines as brightly as a novelist as it does as a playwright. Prima Facie the novel gives us what novels do: the intimacy of interior life. A great read' Anna Funder

Prima Facie by Suzie Miller, read by Jodie Comer: Exclusive Early Listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

**SHORTLISTED FOR BOOKER PRIZE 2024**

Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.

The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

'Beautiful in every aspect'
SARAH MOSS, author of Summerwater

'One of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time'
MARK HADDON, author of The Porpoise

'One of the UK's most exquisite stylists'
GUARDIAN

‘Awe-inspiring’
Max Porter

©2023 Samantha Harvey (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Orbital by Samantha Harvey, read by Sarah Naudi

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey, read by Sarah Naudi

Penguin Books UK