Home & Garden

A 1950S HOUSEWIFE: MARRIAGE AND HOMEMAKING IN THE 1950S

by Sheila Hardy

read by Jill Johnson

running time 7hrs 15mins

Being a housewife in the 1950s was quite different from today. After the independence of the wartime years, many women now had to leave their jobs when they married. This book includes anecdotes and homemaking hints from 1950's housewives, providing a poignant insight into their lives.

THE APPLE ORCHARD

by Pete Brown

read by Bob Rollett

running time 10hrs

Taking us through the seasons in England's apple-growing heartlands, this magical book uncovers the stories and folklore of our most familiar fruit.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: AT HOME IN GEORGIAN ENGLAND

by Amanda Vickery

read by Grace Dives

running time 16hrs 30mins

Using an impressive range of source materials, including literary memoirs, the transcripts of burglary trials and upholsterer's ledgers, this is a detailed insight to home life in Georgian England from a wide cross-section of society.

CAKE: A SLICE OF HISTORY

by Alysa Levene

read by Kate Russel-Smith

running time

Every family has their signature bakes. The rich fruit cake that your Nan makes at Christmas. Your Mum's decadent chocolate cake that made an appearance at every birthday party. Your own gloriously gooey chocolate brownies. But what does cake mean for different people? How have we come to have such a huge variety of cakes? What had to happen historically for them to appear? And what can they tell us about the family, and women's roles in particular? Alysa Levene takes us on a journey from King Alfred to our modern-day love of cupcakes, via Queen Victoria's patriotic sandwich, the Southern States of America, slavery and the spice trade, to the rise of the celebrity chef.

DEAR FRANCESCA

by Mary Contini

read by Janet Alexander

running time 11hrs 30mins

Mary Contini and her husband grew up in extended Italian families in Scotland and she wanted to pass on the family histories, traditions and passion for food to her daughter. She successfully combines Italian heritage and recipes in this book which can be enjoyed if you like cooking or just reading about Italian food.

EATING FOR ENGLAND

by Nigel Slater

read by Tony Lister

running time 7hrs 45mins

An anthology of the delights and eccentricities of the British and their relationship with food, as observed by acclaimed food writer Nigel Slater.

FENCING PARADISE

by Richard Mabey

read by Bob Wildgust

running time 8hrs 40mins

Richard Mabey explores our landscape seeing nature as it is rather than for human convenience.

GARDENER'S NIGHTCAP

by Muriel Stuart

read by Gill Wilsher

running time 4hrs 45mins

Muriel Stuart, a successful poet during and just after the First World War took to gardening, with great enthusiasm, after having children and giving up poetry. After the Second World War Muriel Stuart was a well-known columnist writing for gardening magazines for thirty years. Gardener’s Nightcap is a collection of small pieces intended to take as a ‘nightcap’ before settling down for the night…

THE HAIRY BIKERS: BLOOD, SWEAT AND TYRES; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY

by Dave Myers & Si King

read by Dave Myers

running time 11hrs

Si King and Dave Myers, aka The Hairy Bikers, have lived life to the fullest. They had fantastically rich northern childhoods laced with food and fun, but of course with some tragedy too. But we also get to know the early Bikers - we find out how their friendship developed and all of the mad capers and round-the-world trips they went on.

IF WALLS COULD TALK: AN INTIMATE HISTORY OF THE HOME

by Lucy Worsley

read by Katherine Shaw

running time 11hrs

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions - and more - are answered in this truly intimate history of the home.

JAMBUSTERS

by Julie Summers

read by Jill Johnson

running time 10hrs 30mins

The Second World War was the WI's finest hour. With all the vigour, energy and enthusiasm at their disposal, a third of a million country women set out to make their lives and the lives of those around them more bearable in what they described as 'a period of insanity'.

KITCHEN ESSAYS

by Agnes Jekyll

read by Ann Clark

running time 5hrs 30mins

These short essays about food were first published in The Times and include titles such as 'Tray Food' and 'Sunday Supper' as well as 'For The Too Fat' and 'For The Too Thin'.

LIFE IN THE GARDEN

by Penelope Lively

read by Helen Lloyd

running time 6hrs

Penelope Lively has always been a keen gardener. This is partly a memoir of her own life in gardens, such as her grandmother's garden in Somerset and the urban garden in the North London home she lives in today. It is also an engaging exploration of gardens in literature, from Paradise Lost to Alice in Wonderland, amongst others.

THE MAGIC APPLE TREE: A COUNTRY YEAR

by Susan Hill

read by Jill Johnson

running time 8hrs

The Magic Apple Tree stands in the garden of Moon Cottage, in the small village of Barley, Oxfordshire. Susan Hill's book is an evocation of a year seen from that cottage, in which she and her family lived for thirteen years.

NICE CUP OF TEA AND A SIT DOWN

by Wifey & Nicey

read by Bob Wildgust

running time 7hrs 30mins

From dunking the Digestive, the Iced Gem to the Garibaldi, everything you'll ever need to know about biscuits is in this book, and quite a lot more besides. Is the Jaffa Cake a cake or a biscuit? And have Wagon Wheels really got smaller since your childhood. Unstintingly researched, this book does exactly what it says on the biscuit tin. So go on. Take a weight off, put the kettle on, and enjoy.

ONE MORE CROISSANT FOR THE ROAD

by Felicity Cloake

read by Felicity Cloake

running time 9hrs

Cookery journalist Felicity Cloake embarks on the trip of a lifetime, cycling 3,500km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. This lively account of her search for the ultimate Quiche Lorraine, la meilleure Tarte Tatin and a Cassoulet par excellence culminates in a triumphant two-wheeled tour of Paris’ boulangeries in pursuit of France’s finest croissant. Each chapter concludes with a new ‘perfect’ recipe for each dish.

PATCH WORK: A LIFE AMONGST CLOTHES

by Claire Wilcox

read by Pamela Todd

running time 6hrs 30mins

Claire Wilcox has been a curator of fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum for most of her working life. Here, she turns her curator's eye to the fabric of life itself, tugging at the threads of memory: a cardigan worn by a child, a tin button box, the draping of a curtain, a roll of lace, a pin hidden in a seam. Through these intimate and compelling close-ups, we see how the stories and the secrets of clothes measure out the passage of time, our gains and losses, and the way we use them to unravel and write our histories.

THE REAL MRS BEETON: THE STORY OF ELIZA ACTON

by Sheila Hardy

read by Patricia Mumford

running time 7hrs 45mins

Eliza Acton is the forgotten hero of our culinary past. One of the few Victorian ladies whose legacy has lasted well into the twenty-first century and whose recipes are still used in thousands of kitchens today. This is the story of her success, not only as the little-known mother of modern cookery, but also as a poet and a campaigner for healthy eating.

SCENES FROM A SMALLHOLDING

by Chas Griffin

read by Tony Lister

running time 9hrs 30mins

In 1982 Chas Griffin and his family left suburbia and a secure job to grow garlic in Wales. This is his amusing, warts and all account of his family's early years on the farm.

TABLE TALK: SWEET AND SOUR, SALT AND BITTER

by A A Gill

read by Richard Worland

running time 9hrs

An idiosyncratic selection of A A Gill's writing about food, taken from his Sunday Times and Tatler columns. Sometimes inspired by the traditions of a whole country, sometimes by a single ingredient, it is a celebration of what great eating can be.

UNDER A MACKEREL SKY

by Rick Stein

read by Rick Stein

running time 10hrs 25mins

From dealing with his father's suicide by heading for the outback, catching a freighter from New Zealand to New York, to running a nightclub: Stein has plenty to talk about before he gets to fish restaurants in Padstow and becoming a fixture of food TV. Richard & Judy Bookclub

WILDWOOD: A JOURNEY THROUGH TREES

by Roger Deakin

read by Bob Rollett

running time 16hrs 5mins

In this celebration of the transforming magic of trees, Roger Deakin sets off on a quest that takes him through Britain, and further afield in search of what lies behind our enduring connection with wood and trees.