From London to Cornwall, then to Italy and France, a short, shabby priest takes on bandits, traitors, and killers. Why is he so successful? The reason is that after years spent in the priesthood, Father Brown knows human nature and is not afraid of its dark side. Thus he understands criminal motivation and how to deal with it.

From London to Cornwall, then to Italy and France, a short, shabby priest takes on bandits, traitors, and killers. Why is he so successful? The reason is that after years spent in the priesthood, Father Brown knows human nature and is not afraid of its dark side. Thus he understands criminal motivation and how to deal with it. The award-winning Colonial Theatre on the Air has dramatized G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories from The Wisdom of Father Brown with a full cast, music score, and sound effects.

The Colonel's body is discovered in the blacksmith's yard, the skull smashed like a crushed eggshell. No man for 40 miles around could have struck such a blow, except the giant of a blacksmith... and the blackmith has a cast-iron alibi. Only the reticent catholic priest Father Brown can deduce the extraordinary truth behind this bizarre murder.

Shabby and lumbering, with a face like a Norfolk dumpling, Father Brown makes for an improbable super-sleuth. But his innocence is the secret of his success: refusing the scientific method of detection, he adopts instead an approach of simple sympathy, interpreting each crime as a work of art, and each criminal as a man no worse than himself… Here you will find the complete Father Brown stories in the chronological order of their original publication. The Innocence of Father Brown Starts at Chapter 1, The Wisdom of Father Brown Starts at Chapter 13.

With his black hat, huge umbrella, unworldly simplicity and 'beaming but breathless geniality', Father Brown is one of fiction's best-loved amateur detectives. Short and tatty, but with the wisdom and insight to unravel the most wayward of criminal minds, he has entertained generations. In this collection of 13 full-cast dramatisations, the high priest of detection becomes involved in seven intriguing cases that will tax even his mental powers to the limit.

Aristide Valentin, head of the Paris Police, is on the trail of the ingenious criminal and master of disguise Flambeau. Valentin suspects that the Flambeau is going to London to attend a conference of clergymen to steal the precious religious articles on display there. While traveling to London, Valentin encounters a Catholic priest, and he overhears Father Brown tell a lady that he is carrying the "Blue Cross", a sterling silver cross covered in precious blue stones. Valentin warns Father Brown that it is dangerous to tell anyone that he is carrying an object of immense value.

The powerful sense of evil – darkness, creepy hairy presences, cloaks, hoods, talons and tentacles – pervades these classic ghost stories by M.R. James. A Cambridge scholar himself, James explored what happens when academics dabble in things they don’t understand and unleash forces of which they know nothing.

In this allegorical short story, Nathaniel Hawthorne parodies John Bunyan’s famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. Rather than take the long and arduous road to the Celestial City, Hawthorne’s narrator hops on the express train to paradise. As he gets closer to his destination, however, he realizes that the clever-talking Mr. Smooth-It-Away may not be who he claims. While a caricature of Bunyan’s original tale, “The Celestial Railroad” ultimately drives home a similar point: there is no easy road to Heaven, so tough it out on the straight and narrow.

The complete unabridged audiobook of J.R.R Tolkien's The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien’s world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part.

A Tale of Two Cities is one of Charles Dickens's most exciting novels. Set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, it tells the story of a family threatened by the terrible events of the past. Doctor Manette was wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years without trial by the aristocratic authorities.

Originally published in the 1853 Christmas edition of Dickens's journal Household Words, The Schoolboy's Story recounts the tale of Old Cheeseman, a schoolboy who becomes the second Latin Master, and his former peers who consider him a traitor for doing it. This version of The Schoolboy's Story was recorded as part of Dreamscape's The Christmas Stories of Charles Dickens.

Spot was a good-looking dog and everyone in the Klondike wanted the canine - except the two men that owned him. They tried selling him, they tried leaving him behind, and Spot seemed content to keep them guessing how he was always able to find them. Adventure, humor, and a good dose of owner frustration populate this story from famed writer Jack London.

>"The Cop and the Anthem" may be the third most widely read O. Henry story in grammar, middle, and high school. "The Ransom of Red Chief" rates number one, "The Gift of the Magi" number two, and "A Retrieved Reformation" number four. Young readers enjoy this story a lot because of the hilarious plot of Soapy, the only named character, trying to get arrested so he can spend the winter in jail. Adults tend to like the ironic approach of Soapy’s potential victims....

Oscar Wilde's collection of fairy stories are among the greatest and most poignant classics for children and adults alike. Humour, pathos, delightful little characters abound in the stories of The Happy Prince and the Swallow who agrees to keep him company despite approaching winter; The Selfish Giant, who doesn't want children playing in his garden, and The Remarkable Rocket.

Set in the 14th century, the classic story of one boy's personal heroism when he loses the use of his legs.