The Read

Apr 10, 2022

A creative performance reading of The Lonely Londoners that juxtaposes modern imagery and fascinating archive footage to reflect on how Sam Selvon's novel shaped the London of today.

Jun 5, 2022

A performance reading of the abridged novel On the Black Hill, by Bruce Chatwin. Identical twin brothers grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home.

Nov 6, 2022

A creative performance reading of a powerful novel of disaffection that charts a young man's uneasy passage into adulthood.

Apr 2, 2023

Performance reading of A Vision of Loveliness by Louise Levene. A darkly comic novel that reveals the seedy underbelly of London in the 1960s, rich with period detail.

Sep 17, 2023

Christopher Eccleston narrates Barry Hines’s heartbreaking coming-of-age tale in this fresh take on a classic British novel.

Oct 29, 2023

Some of the best-known love poems are weaved together to create a fresh contemporary story told by four lovers.

Mar 3, 2024

Alex Kingston breathes life into Mary Shelley’s timeless gothic horror story. Young, gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein unwittingly creates a monster. Written more than 200 years ago, the classic masterpiece still resonates today as a tragic romance that examines the battle between ambition and morality.

May 12, 2024

Heartbreak and longing are centre stage as BAFTA-winning actor Steve Pemberton narrates Kazuo Ishiguro’s contemporary classic.

Nov 17, 2024

A bleak dystopian future plays out before us as Royal Television Society award-winning actor Sacha Dhawan narrates George Orwell’s profoundly impactful and thought-provoking classic.

Dec 22, 2024

Anne-Marie Duff performs an intimate reading of Charles Dickens’s timeless classic. Can the ghostly interventions salvage Scrooge’s soul?

Jan 5, 2025

Emily Brontë’s timeless classic set against the haunting backdrop of the Yorkshire Moors and narrated by award-winning actor Vinette Robinson.

Feb 2, 2025

Who is the real monster? Robert Louis Stevenson’s defining gothic horror explores alter egos in this captivating narration that reimagines the 19th-century classic.

Dec 18, 2025

Bafta and Olivier Award-winning actor Monica Dolan gives a captivating reading of Jane Austen’s much-loved novel.

Dec 25, 2025

Steffan Rhodri (Gavin and Stacey, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) gives an enchanting reading performance of CS Lewis’s timeless classic, as we step into the magical world of Narnia, filled with adventure, courage and Turkish Delight.

Feb 26, 2026

Murder, conspiracy and espionage are the themes of John Buchan’s gripping novel, set against the backdrop of WWI, that sees Richard Hannay, a bored adventurer, become embroiled in a plot to assassinate a political figure.

Mar 22, 2026

Oscar Wilde’s haunting tale of beauty, vanity and moral corruption, where eternal youth comes at a terrible price. Luke Thompson delivers a spellbinding performance of Wilde’s only novel.