England Home

Join us on a fascinating ramble through the towns and villages of the British Isles during the last 400 years in the company of some of its most illustrious chroniclers, including Jane Austen, William Cobbett, Daniel Defoe, Sir Walter Scott, Virginia Woolf, Francis Kilvert, Celia Fiennes, Chips Channon, Fanny Burney and many others, told entirely in their own words.

Beth Burnham is in trouble. She's broke, underemployed, and her house is falling down around her. Down to the last $20 bill in her grocery jar, she approaches the local law firm, hoping that they'll hire her as a part-time attorney. But when she finds that the new managing partner is the man she jilted eight years ago, and when she realizes that he still loves her, her world is turned upside down. What's more, a handsome young tattoo artist is in town, ready to sweep her off her feet.

Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs it needs. A small kitchen fix reveals that the structure’s rotten frame could collapse at any moment. In a bathroom, mold appears and spreads. He fights deteriorating bricks, frozen pipes, shattered windows, a punctured foundation, and even an airborne chimney cap.

As a nation of food-lovers we have been munching on fruit and veg, drinking tea and coffee, and using oils and spices for generations, but have you ever stopped to think how our most beloved foods came to be the way they are now? In Borough Market: Edible Histories, award-winning food writer Mark Riddaway takes us on a culinary journey through the most fascinating, surprising and downright bizarre stories behind Britain's favourite tipples and nibbles.

On 6 June, 1944, Britain woke up to a profound silence. Overnight, 160,000 Allied troops had vanished and an eerie emptiness settled over the country. The majority of those men would never return. This is the story of that extraordinary 24 hours. Using a wealth of first-person testimonies, renowned historian Max Arthur recounts a remarkable new oral history of D-Day, beginning with the two years leading up to the silent day that saw the UK transformed by the arrival of thousands of American and Canadian troops.

Meg Muckenhoupt begins with a simple question: When did Bostonians start making Boston Baked Beans? Storekeepers in Faneuil Hall and Duck Tour guides may tell you that the Pilgrims learned a recipe for beans with maple syrup and bear fat from Native Americans, but in fact, the recipe for Boston Baked Beans is the result of a conscious effort in the late 19th century to create New England foods. This toothsome volume reveals the effort that went into the creation of these foods and lets us begin to reclaim the culinary heritage of immigrant New England.

We follow in the footsteps of the intrepid British traveller as they explore the world both at home and abroad, told entirely in the words of those who were there. In two volumes: The Traveller at Home Gazette and The Traveller Abroad Gazette. Performed by an outstanding company of award-winning actors including Dame Eileen Atkins, Cheryl Campbell, Nigel Davenport, Alex Jennings, Richard Johnson OBE, Hugh Laurie CBE, Michael Maloney, Geoffrey Palmer OBE, Michael Pennington, Prunella Scales CBE, Samuel West, John Wood CBE and full supporting cast.