Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.
Find out how to listen to other BBC stations
Chapter 29
Robert Louis Stevenson’s youthful adventure story across high seas and Scottish Highlands
24 Aug 2019,·15 mins
Ghost Stories by HG Wells
The Stolen Body
When a researcher experiments with astral projection, an interested party intervenes.
30 Jun 2017,·15 mins
5. Shipwreck and Marriage
117 days have passed since Maurice and Maralyn were cast adrift and hope of rescue faded.
07 Feb 2025,·14 mins
Episode 10 - Adult Dinners and Ugly Crying
Maggie finds some peace at last and the perfect spot to ugly cry.
16 Jan 2023,·15 mins
Part Three
Virginia Woolf’s comic biography of a time-travelling hero who transforms into a heroine.
01 Nov 2019,·51 mins
5: Roll Over, Dead Old Me
The last in a brilliantly original and savagely funny new series about women and space.
30 May 2025,·14 mins
5. London Lives
London has witnessed cycles of disaster and plague. History’s lessons still resonate.
07 Nov 2025,·14 mins
Episode 5
Sara Sheridan’s witty and intriguing new story concludes. Read by Elaine C Smith.
28 Jun 2024,·14 mins
Chapter 6
A doctor experiments with the duality of human nature, and in doing so creates a monster.
22 Aug 2019,·10 mins
Part Two: Chapter Two
Jonathan Swift’s satire following Lemuel Gulliver’s strange travels through odd lands.
01 Nov 2019,·12 mins
Letters from South Africa
Johannesburg
Five letters from South African writers about life there in the week of the ANC elections.
15 Dec 2017,·14 mins
5. Families of the Future
Some thoughts on alternatives to traditional, nuclear family structures.
28 Nov 2025,·14 mins
The Puffling
By Tiffany Murray. Hulda visits the island of Heimaey for her grandfather’s birthday.
18 Sep 2022,·14 mins
A Celebration of the Short Story
Araby by James Joyce
James Joyce’s story from Dubliners about a boy enchanted by a woman and a utopian bazaar.
09 Sep 2019,·13 mins
Episode Ten
We move on to a year after the wedding. Can 'The List' finally be put to rest for Ola?
06 Oct 2023,·17 mins
Episode Twelve: December
Dr Lucy Maddox shares practical advice from her experience as a clinical psychologist
07 Jun 2023,·14 mins
5: The Future
The final part of a thought-provoking book questioning overdiagnosis in medicine.
21 Mar 2025,·14 mins
Episode 5: The Flickering
Five original essays on how the mysterious is woven into the ordinary and the everyday.
18 Jul 2025,·14 mins
10. 3 Years On
The final part of the blistering new novel from the author of The Power.
06 Dec 2023,·17 mins
Alice Munro - Too Much Happiness
Free Radicals
A newly widowed woman must look to the wife she replaced when a stranger threatens her.
15 Dec 2009,·15 mins
10: The Scoresheet
Shocking revelations on the village green in the final story in a new series for Radio 4.
02 Jan 2022,·14 mins
The 2025 Young Writers' Award Shortlist revealed!
Listen to the showcase of five shortlisted stories for the 2025 BBC Young Writers' Award.
14 Sep 2025,·48 mins
7. Days of Hope
Abi Morgan's memoir concludes as summer seas point to new hope and promises for her family
27 May 2022,·15 mins
Chapter 1
Charles Dickens' timeless classic about a bitter old man who has a Christmas epiphany.
17 Dec 2019,·49 mins
5. Reflections
As time passes in Florence, Flush begins to feel his age.
25 Feb 2011,·15 mins
A Song Flung up to Heaven
Maya Angelou is set to work for Martin Luther King when tragedy strikes.
01 Mar 2019,·14 mins
Episode 10
In this final episode will Maeve escape her small town to London?
11 Aug 2022,·15 mins
5: All Who Were Able For It
The final story in Sarah Moss's powerful and heart-breaking series set on a hospital ward.
10 Jul 2022,·14 mins
BBC National Short Story Award 2025
You Cannot Thread a Moving Needle by Colwill Brown
Colwill Brown's powerful story is a contender for the BBC National Short Story Award.
19 Sep 2025,·28 mins
Exposure
Etta's travelling is over as she returns to a city on edge after the Allies' departure.
27 Mar 2026,·14 mins
