Key Stage 4

(UN)ARRANGED MARRIAGE

by Bali Rai

read by Tony Lister

running time 8hrs

Manjit is seventeen and on his way to a wedding - his wedding, a marriage arranged by his Punjabi family to a girl he has never seen. But Manjit has decided that his family will not force him to live his life in the traditional way!

...AND THAT'S WHEN IT FELL OFF IN MY HAND

by Louise Rennison

read by Louise Rennison

running time 4hrs

The fifth book of confessions by Georgia Nicolson. When the Sex God leaves for Whakatane, Georgia is heartbroken - for about an hour. Soon with her old flame Dave around, and the arrival of Italian stallion Massimo, she has her work cut out to stay the cool sex-kitten of her aspirations.

24 HOURS

by Margaret Mahy

read by Richard Simpson

running time 5hrs 45mins

It’s the holiday between school and university and Ellis is free. When he meets Jackie and three strange sisters he is pulled into a series of bizarre situations. In twenty-four exciting hours Ellis is changed forever.

THE 5TH WAVE

by Rick Yancey

read by Anna-Maria Vesey

running time 13hrs

On a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from the beings that only look human, who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope.

ABANDON

by Meg Cabot

read by Natalia Payne

running time 9hrs 15mins

Abandon series, Book 1. Last year, 17-year-old Pierce died - just for a moment. And when she was in the space between life and death, she met John: tall dark and terrifying, it's his job to usher souls from one realm to the next. There's a fierce attraction between them, but Pierce knows that falling for John means a life of shadows and loneliness in the underworld…

THE BABY-SITTER

by R L Stine

read by Pat Steadman

running time 5hrs 0min

From the moment Jenny accepts a baby-sitting job, she knows she has made a terrible mistake.

CALABRIAN QUEST

by Geoffrey Trease

read by Wendy Denison

running time 6hrs

A gripping story of archaeological adventure and a quest for lost treasure in Italy.

DANCING IN MY NUDDY PANTS

by Louise Rennison

read by Rosemary Cross

running time 4hrs 30mins

4th in Georgia Nicholson series: Sequel to 'Knocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas' (616324). Life continues for Georgia, but is being the girlfriend of the Sex-God as perfect as she had imagined?

THE EAGLE OF THE NINTH

by Rosemary Sutcliff

read by Bob Rollett

running time 10hrs 35mins

Marcus, a Roman soldier in Britain, sets out to solve the mystery of the missing Ninth Legion, which disappeared into the mists of northern Britain, led by his father. His aim is to salvage his father’s reputation and find the Legion’s missing eagle standard, but the task is a dangerous one.

THE FALL OF GONDOLIN

by J R R Tolkien

read by Samuel West

running time 8hrs 15mins

Gondolin was a fabulous secret city of Elves in the First Age of Middle-earth. This is the story of the founding of the city; of the arrival there of Tuor, a prince of Men; of the betrayal of the city to Morgoth by the king's nephew, Maeglin; and of its subsequent catastrophic destruction by Morgoth's armies.

GARETH OF ORKNEY

by E M R Ditmas

read by Stephanie Joy

running time 7hrs

Re-telling of stories about King Arthur's knights of the round table

HACKER

by Malorie Blackman

read by Pat Steadman

running time 7hrs 0min

When Vicky's father is accused of stealing over a million pounds from the bank where he works, she is determined to prove his innocence.

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE

by Dodie Smith

read by Jenny Agutter

running time 12hrs 20mins

This is the story of Cassandra Mortmain and her unconventional family, who live in an old English castle. Here she strives, over six months, to hone her writing skills by recording in her three notebooks a journal of the changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her first descent to love.

JACK AND JILL

by Lucy Cavendish

read by Molly Hanson

running time 2hrs

Jill's little brother, Jack, won't speak. There are plenty of things Jill doesn't understand, she doesn't know why her aunt and uncle give her and Jack strange looks, or why they're being talked about in the village. Jill decides to find out what's going on and uncovers the appalling truth behind brother Jack's silence. Quick Reads.

KIDNAPPED

by Robert Louis Stevenson

read by Bob Wildgust

running time 10hrs 30mins

Young David Balfour, left in poverty, is kidnapped on a ship by orders of his Uncle and carried off to America.

LA BELLE SAUVAGE

by Philip Pullman

read by Michael Sheen

running time 12hrs 30mins

Eleven-year-old Malcolm and his dæmon, Asta, live at the Trout Inn near Oxford. Across the River Thames, which Malcolm navigates using his beloved canoe, La Belle Sauvage, is Godstow Priory where the nuns live. Malcolm learns they have a baby with them by the name of Lyra Belacqua. Malcolm and Lyra are caught up in a terrifying adventure that takes them into a new world. Volume 1 of 'The Book of Dust' series.

MACBETH

by William Shakespeare

read by Marlowe Dramatic Society

running time 2hrs

Promised a golden future as ruler of Scotland by three sinister witches, Macbeth murders the king to ensure his ambitions come true. But he soon learns the meaning of terror - killing once, he must kill again and again, and the dead return to haunt him.

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST

by Janni Howker

read by Brenda Usherwood

running time 5hrs

English teenager Bill Coward finds himself losing control of his life when the mill where his father works is shut down and a mysterious beast begins making savage attacks on local livestock.

OF MICE AND MEN

by John Steinbeck

read by Malcolm James

running time 3hrs 45mins

Set in California in 1930s. George and Lennie are itinerant farm workers who dream of owning their own ranch. But not even his best friend can save Lennie from his own strength.

PAPER AVALANCHE

by Lisa Williamson

read by Gemma Lawrence

running time 9hrs

When it comes to flying under the radar, Ro Snow is the expert. No friends. No boys. No parties. And strictly NO VISITORS. It may be lonely but at least this way the truth remains where it should - hidden. Then Tanvi Shah comes tumbling back into her life and Ro finds herself losing control of her carefully constructed lies. Because if Ro's walls come crumbling down, who's going to take care of Bonnie... Bonnie. Never Mum or Mummy or Mother. Just Bonnie.

Q'S LEGACY

by Helene Hanff

read by Betsy Drake

running time 7hrs

Helene Hanff was inspired to write after reading 'On the Art of Writing' by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. 'Q' taught Helene to love books. She tells how that first encounter with 'Q' altered the course of her life.

THE RADLEYS

by Matt Haig

read by Mark Meadows

running time 7hrs 45mins

Meet the Radleys: Peter, Helen and their teenage children, Clara and Rowan, live in a typical suburban English town. They are an everyday family, averagely dysfunctional, averagely content. But, as their children have yet to find out, the Radleys have a devastating secret.

SALAR THE SALMON

by Henry Williamson

read by Raymond Mason

running time 7hrs

The story of Salar and his migration through the rivers of Devon leaves us with a vivid unsentimental picture of how both people and wildlife rely on a river and its estuary.

TALE OF TWO DOLPHINS

by Horace Dobbs

read by Malcolm James

running time 8hrs

Horace Dobbs spent many years studying the behaviour of dolphins in order to try and understand their minds and to learn more about the hidden world beneath the sea. What he discovered caused him to question the validity of his entire scientific training.

UGLIES

by Scott Westerfeld

read by Nicola Down

running time 9hrs 20mins

In Tally’s world, everyone has an operation when they are sixteen to make them supermodel beautiful – a Pretty – and Tally can’t wait. But her friend Shay rebels and runs away to join the Uglies, a group of radical teenagers who want to keep their own faces!

THE VALLEY OF SECRETS

by Charmian Hussey

read by Tony Lister

running time 13hrs 35mins

Stephen had been abandoned as a baby and given up all hope of ever finding his family. Behind locked gates, Stephen discovered his inheritance and a lost Cornish valley with strange secrets.

THE WALL

by William Sutcliffe

read by Ben Seymour

running time 10hrs 15mins

Joshua kicks his football into a building site and discovers a secret tunnel. It leads through pitch darkness under the Wall and into forbidden territory, where a boy like him shouldn't stray. When Joshua emerges into the light of the other side, his world is turned upside down - with kindness, terror and violence, and a debt he can never repay.

XY - A TOOLKIT FOR LIFE

by Matt Whyman

read by Richard Ratcliffe

running time 3hrs 20mins

For a teenage boy life is full of possibilities, temptations and choices. You need the facts, here they are. Sex, body changes, drink, drugs, the works. No preaching, no agenda. It's a toolkit for life, your life.

THE YEAR THE GYPSIES CAME

by Linzi Glass

read by Judy Franklin

running time 7hrs 45mins

It is spring 1966 and a family of wanderers has come to stay at Emily's unhappy Johannesburg home. The arrival of the 'gypsies' changes them all forever and destroys Emily's hopes of a happy family life.

ZENITH

by Julie Bertagna

read by Diane Darwin

running time 8hrs 30mins

Book 2 of ‘Exodus’, sequel to ‘Exodus’ (616406). The Arctic ice floes are melting and as the seas rise and land disappears, Mara and her ship of refugees track the North Star, desperate to find a homeland in the melted ice mountains of Greenland. The floating city of Pomperoy is just one of the shocks that isn’t in their navigation plans.