大象传媒

The days can seem short, dark and dreary. And if you’re eager to escape the winter gloom, there’s no better way than listening to a good book.

Thankfully, 大象传媒 Radio 4 has a wealth of cracking audiobooks to transport us to new and exciting worlds. From meaningful memoirs to the capers of fairy-tale princes, these scintillating stories are guaranteed to light up even the darkest of days.

Perhaps best known as a 1987 Hollywood film, “The Princess Bride” was originally a classic tale of true love and high adventure by S. Morgenstern. But in 1973, William Goldman released his own “Good Parts” version: a swashbuckling fantasy romance featuring a fighting giant that loves to rhyme, a swordsman on the ultimate quest for revenge, a pirate in love with a princess, a princess in love with a farm boy and a prince in love with war. Now Radio 4 have brought it to life with a two-part dramatisation plus five bitesize backstories which can be enjoyed as stand-alone tales, or used to enhance your experience of the drama. With elements of comedy, adventure, fantasy, drama, romance, and fairy tale – escapism doesn’t come better than this.

Listen to The Princess Bride by William Goldman here.

This winter, Radio 4 have a magical dramatisation of Tove Jansson’s classic tale, “Moominland Midwinter”, starring John Finnemore and Samantha Bond. Moomintroll wakes in the middle of winter, when the rest of his family are hibernating. Moominvalley is deep in snow. Anxious and alone, he is forced to venture out into a strange and frightening world to find new friends and navigate his way past new perils. Will he learn how to live in this unfamiliar frozen landscape? Will he escape The Lady of the Cold whose gaze turns any living thing to ice? And more importantly, will he learn to ski?

Listen to Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson here.

The protagonist in Bella Mackie's bestselling darkly comic novel is Grace Bernard, a 28-year-old imprisoned in Limehouse Prison for a crime she didn't commit. But don't feel too sorry for her: she may not have committed this crime but she has committed plenty of others. In “How to Kill Your Family” Grace explains how, when she discovers her absentee millionaire father has rejected her dying mother’s pleas for help, she vows revenge, and sets about to kill every member of his family – her own estranged relatives. Tune in to this wickedly gruesome romp to learn how Grace picks off her family one by one, in a variety of elaborate ways.

Listen to How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie here.

Felix White, for reasons often beyond him, has always been deeply in love with cricket. In this memoir, read by Felix himself, he explains how the sport has punctuated and given meaning to every stage and moment of significance in his life – from the highs and lows of growing up in South West London, to his years as the guitarist in world renowned band The Maccabees, to the tragic illness of his mother and his subsequent grief. You don’t have to like cricket to love this. The author’s passion for the sport and vivid observations – comic and tragic in equal measure – make for an infectious listen.

Listen to It's Always Summer Somewhere by Felix White here.

Sometimes it's easy to fall between the cracks... When Bess finds out she's pregnant, she’s not sure where to turn. Her social worker, Henry, is useless. She knows her foster mother will struggle to understand. And she hasn’t spoken to Boy, the root of all her problems, for weeks. “Careless” is the frank and feisty story of 15-year-old Beth who lives with a foster family, her first sexual relationship with 19-year-old “Boy” during the long hot summer of 1999, and her unwanted pregnancy. This electrifying debut by Kirsty Capes examines life in care with real compassion and explores what it means to be young and seemingly invisible in modern-day Britain.

Listen to Careless by Kirsty Capes here.

Set in Lagos, this wickedly razor-sharp story explores the relationship of two sisters. Korede's little sister, Ayoola, has already dispatched of three boyfriends in “self-defence”, leaving Korede to clean up her sticky, stomach-turning mess. The nurse knows she should go to the police, to prevent more men meeting the same gruesome fate, but she loves her sibling, and doesn’t family always come first? But when Ayoola becomes involved with a doctor that Korede has feelings for herself, it’s not clear at all who she should choose to protect… “My Sister, the Serial Killer” is a thriller with a difference. A darkly comic novel about how blood is thicker – and much harder to get out of the carpet – than water.

Listen to My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite here.

Eleanor Oliphant leads a simple life. She wears the same clothes each day, eats the same lunch at work, and buys two bottles of vodka to drink each weekend. She is fine, completely fine. But one simple act of kindness is about to shatter the walls Eleanor has carefully built around herself. Tracy Wiles reads Gail Honeyman's uplifting, heart-warming – and heart-breaking – debut novel about loneliness, loss and the possibility of change, with an out-of-the-ordinary heroine at its heart.

Listen to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman here.

Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. But day by day, by reading and writing, and with the help of loved ones around him, he overcame his depression. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again. A profoundly moving, hilarious and joyful book, “Reasons to Stay Alive” is more than a memoir. It is a manual on how to make the most of your time on earth, celebrate life’s small pleasures, and remember that there is always light at the end of the tunnel – no matter how dark that tunnel might seem.

Listen to Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig here.