Including Homage to Catalonia 'Spain not only defined Orwell as an individual, it also gave him his first glimpse of totalitarianism' D. J. Taylor, Guardian George Orwell's experience of the Spanish Civil War had a transformative effect on his life and work. This volume brings together his complete writings on the war, including Homage to Catalonia, his searing memoir of fighting in the conflict and the bitter betrayal that followed. The powerful journalism, essays, letters and pamphlets also collected here show his resolution to tell the truth about what happened amid a 'crop of lies' from both the Communist Party and the British press, while in 'Looking Back on the Spanish War' he remembers the heroism and decency of the ordinary people he encountered. Edited by Peter Davison with an Introduction by Christopher Hitchens

All 91 episodes of the 1980s BBC drama series following events in a veterinary practice supporting the local farming community in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. Based on James Herriot's autobiographical bestsellers 'If Only They Could Talk' and 'It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet', the series stars Christopher Timothy as James Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon, Peter Davidson as his brother Tristan, and Carol Drinkwater as James's wife Helen.

Selected by Peter Davison with an introduction by Edward Hirsch. Sissman was a true phenomenon in American poetry. He published his first book, a collection of antic, autobiographical episodes in blank verse, in 1968. Eight years and three books later, he died of Hodgkin's disease at the age of forty-eight. Of Sissman's remarkable final poems John Updike wrote, "What other poet had ever given such wry and unblinking witness to his own dying? His poetry gave back to life more generously than he had received, and carried his beautiful wit into darkness undimmed." Now Sissman's longtime editor, Peter Davison, has selected from his lifework the essential poems--the essence of an American original. (A Mariner Original)

The Time War. The Doctor has been injured and brought to a Time Lord field hospital. His body glows with energy, but this is no regeneration into a future form - instead, the Doctor's past faces begin to appear as he flits haphazardly between incarnations... Staggering to his TARDIS, the Doctor sets out to solve the mystery of his 'degeneration'. Who has done this to him? How? And why? From the Earth to the stars, across an array of familiar times and places, he follows clues to retrace his steps, encountering old friends and enemies along the way. Tumbling through his lives, the Doctor must stop his degeneration before he loses himself completely...The Artist at the End of Time by James Goss. Suffering from the effects of degeneration, the Doctor heads towards the end of the universe in search of answers. Instead, he finds his daughter – Jenny – and an Artist whose works appear to mark the end of every world they touch. The Doctor stabilises into his Fifth form to join forces with Jenny and the Curator to solve the mystery of the Final Gallery and the art it has collected. CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Georgia Tennant (Jenny), Colin Baker (The Curator), John Telfer (Floom), Abi Harris (Roboguide). Special Appearances by: Stephen Noonan (The First Doctor), Michael Troughton (The Second Doctor), Tim Treloar (The Third Doctor), Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (The Seventh Doctor). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Including Animal Farm 'Orwell is the most influential political writer of the twentieth century' New York Review of Books Throughout his life George Orwell aimed, in his words, to make 'political writing into an art'. This collection brings together the best of his matchless political essays and journalism with his timeless satire on totalitarianism, Animal Farm. It includes articles on subjects from the corruption of language to the oppressive British Empire; his masterly wartime Socialist polemic, 'The Lion and the Unicorn'; a wry review of Mein Kampf; a defence of Nineteen Eighty-Four; and extracts from his controversial list of 'Crypto-Communists'. Together these works demonstrate Orwell's commitment to telling the truth, however unpalatable, and doing so with artistry and humanity. Edited by Peter Davison with an Introduction by Timothy Garton Ash

Shakespeare's Richard III presents difficult textual problems. There are 2,000 verbal differences between the text of the first quarto (1597) and the version in the First Folio (1623). Although the narrative of the two plays is virtually identical, each has lines which are not found in the other, parts of the play are arranged differently, and the quarto deploys fewer characters. The text of the quarto is accompanied by a collation of variant readings and substantial textual notes. In a lengthy introduction Peter Davison proposes that Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, used a memorially reconstructed text of Richard III during a touring performance of the play, and that text provided the manuscript for the 1597 quarto. Using examples of touring practice of the past 400 years, Davison shows how the actors' involvement helped to produce the text we have.

This is the first in a story split across two releases (to be followed by Shadow of the Daleks 2 releasing December 2020) recorded and produced entirely during the Covid-19 lockdown. Together, the two releases make up a 'mini-season' for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor as he is caught up in the Time War. Each part contains four one-episode adventures, in which the Doctor lands in different times, different places and keeps meeting the same faces, but as different people. 1. Aimed at the Body by James Kettle. An encounter with a notorious cricketing legend should be right up the Doctor's street, but the unexpected appearance of an old enemy is about to send the Doctor on a quest. 2. Lightspeed by Jonathan Morris. The trail has led the Doctor to a spaceship in the far future - where he finds himself trapped in the middle of a terrifying revenge plot. 3. The Bookshop at the End of the World by Simon Guerrier. It's very easy to forget yourself and get lost in a bookshop. But in some bookshops more than most... 4. Interlude by Dan Starkey. The play's the thing! Or is it? The Doctor is roped into a theatrical spectacular - but who is he really performing to? CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks), Dervla Kirwan (Mrs Calderwood/Yost McCormack/DI Wright/Anna-Maria), Anjli Mohindra (Flora/Kathy Dafoe/Madeleine Williams/Bianca), Jamie Parker (Douglas/Monsignor Plummer/Frank Reichenbach/Virgilio), Glen McCready (Orson/Elroy Dale/Captain). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Including The Road to Wigan Pier 'No one wrote better about the English character than Orwell' New York Review of Books Much of George Orwell's best writing, brought together in this collection, is concerned with his complex, often contradictory attitude to England. In the brilliantly perceptive The English People, he lists the national characteristics as 'suspicion of foreigners, sentimentality about animals, hypocrisy, exaggerated class distinctions and an obsession with sport'. The Road to Wigan Pier, his blistering account of poverty in the north of England, and many of his essays, attack what he called 'the most class-ridden country under the sun', while other writings here ruminate on the merits of cricket, gardening, roast dinners, pubs, tea and seaside postcards. Edited by Peter Davison with an Introduction by Ben Pimlott

There are 2,000 verbal differences between the text of the First Quarto of Shakespeare's Richard III (1597) and the version in the First Folio (1623). In this Quarto edition the text is accompanied by a collation of variant readings and substantial textual notes. Peter Davison argues that Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, used a memorially reconstructed text of Richard III during a touring performance of the play, and that text provided the manuscript for the 1597 Quarto. The result is a breakthrough in textual studies.

Ralph Waldo Emerson issued a call for a great poet to capture and immortalize the unique American experience. In 1855, an answer came with "Leaves of Grass."
Today, this masterful collection remains not only a seminal event in American literature but also the incomparable achievement of one of America's greatest poets--an exuberant, passionate man who loved his country and wrote of it as no other has ever done. Walt Whitman was a singer, thinker, visionary, and citizen extraordinaire. Thoreau called Whitman "probably the greatest democrat that ever lived," and Emerson judged "Leaves of Grass" as "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed."
The text presented here is that of the "Deathbed" or ninth edition of "Leaves of Grass," published in 1892. The content and grouping of poems is the version authorized by Whitman himself for the final and complete edition of his masterpiece.
With a foreword by Billy Collins, an afterword by Peter Davison, and a new introduction by Elisabeth Panttaja Brink

Gordon Comstock loathes dull, middle-class respectability and worship of money. He gives up a 'good job' in advertising to work part-time in a bookshop, giving him more time to write. But he slides instead into a self-induced poverty that destroys his creativity and his spirit. Only Rosemary, ever-faithful Rosemary, has the strength to challenge his commitment to his chosen way of life. Through the character of Gordon Comstock, Orwell reveals his own disaffection with the society he once himself renounced.

Including Down and Out in Paris and London 'Orwell was the great moral force of his age' Spectator The powerful writings collected together in this volume chronicle George Orwell's first-hand experiences of life among the underclass of the 'two nations' of rich and poor. Down and Out in Paris and London is the young Orwell's memoir of his time as a struggling, often penniless writer, living among the destitute and dispossessed, in which he exposes what 'going to the dogs' is really like. There are also articles and letters on sleeping rough in Trafalgar Square, being arrested for drunkenness, on the poverty Orwell witnessed in Morocco and India, and his shocking essay, 'How the Poor Die'. Edited by Peter Davison with an Introduction by Peter Clarke

A searing account of George Orwell’s experiences of working- class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, slum housing, mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity.

London,1864 - where any gentleman befitting the title 'gentleman' belongs to a gentlemen's club: The Reform, The Athenaeum, The Carlton, The Garrick...and, of course, The Contingency. Newly established in St James', The Contingency become the most exclusive enclave in town. A refuge for men of politics, men of science, men of letters. A place to escape. A place to think. A place to be free. The first rule of the Contingency is to behave like a gentleman. The second is to pay no heed to its oddly identical servants. Or to the horror in its cellars. Or to the existence of the secret gallery on its upper floor...Rules that the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan are all about to break. The Contingency Club reunites the 1982 Doctor Who TARDIS crew for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor - Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton). Director Barnaby Edwards is not only an overworked director for Big Finish productions, but on top of many audiobook voice-over duties, he's also the main Dalek operator in TV's Doctor Who. Clive Merrison's rich voice brought the longest lived radio Sherlock Holmes to life, playing the Great Detective across recordings of every single Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story. Guest star Philip Jackson will be familiar to any fans of top TV detective drama as Inspector Japp in the David Suchet Poirot dramas. CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Clive Merrison (George Augustus), Philip Jackson (Mr Peabody), Lorelei King (The Red Queen), Tim Bentinck (Wakefield/ Cabby/Stonegood), Alison Thea-Skot (Marjorie Stonegood/ Computer), Olly McCauley (Edward/ The Knave).

During one of Nyssa's experiments, the TARDIS's temporal scanner picks up a message: 'Idra'. Just one word, but enough to draw the Doctor to the Archipelago of Sirius. There, the Autarch is about to announce a new crusade. A mighty war against Seth, Prince of the Dark. But who is Seth?

An array of familiar friends and foes join the Fifth Doctor in his second fortieth anniversary box set from Big Finish Productions. The Auton Infinity is a six-part full cast audio drama, where the Doctor and his faithful companions Tegan and Turlough arrive unexpectedly at a UNIT base. Snowdonia. UNIT is running a training exercise with the Brigadier in attendance. Except it isn't long before things start to go badly wrong. The fake aliens primed to attack the troops might not be so fake after all, and a temporal disturbance attracts the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough into the fray. Old enemies are on the scene with a deadly plan - but they might be the least of the Doctor's worries. Because he's recently been sent backwards and forwards through his own lifetime - and he's finally going to find out why. CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Juliet Aubrey (Prodigal), Jon Culshaw (Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart/Kamelion), Lucy Fleming (Veronica Holmes), Fiona Hampton (Sergeant Janet Wharry), Glen McCready (Dodson/Autons), Oscar Pearce (Captain Ted Mears), Homer Todiwala (Corporal Vikram Palmer). Other parts played by members of the cast

Four-part adventure for the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). When the TARDIS is drawn by an irresistible force to the hostile and barren planet of Frontios, a gruesome fate awaits the spacecraft's crew and the planet's last few surviving humans as alien parasites, burrowing undetected below the planet's crust, prepare to devour them.

The sci-fi series dips its toe into Agatha Christie waters when the Doctor (Peter Davison) arrives in 1920s England and becomes embroiled in a murder mystery. When the TARDIS arrives at Cranleigh Halt railway station on a summer afternoon in 1925, the Doctor and his pals are surprised to be met by a chauffeur (Timothy Block) and whisked off to a cricket match. Lord Cranleigh (Michael Cochrane) has assumed that the Doctor has come from Guy's Hospital for the charity event to be held later that night in aid of a sick kids' hospital. There then follows a masked ball, a case of mistaken identity and mysterious, murderous goings on in this two-part homage to the golden age of English whodunnits.

63BC. Following the overthrow of Catiline, Cicero and his wife retire to the coastal town of Cumae, safe from the threats of Rome. But when a stranger and his companions arrive at Cicero’s villa, new dangers lie in wait and Cicero finds himself plunged into a realm of gods and monsters. His only hope of returning home lies with a man known as the Doctor. But can Cicero trust him? CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), Samuel Barnett (Cicero), Laura Riseborough (Terentia), George Watkins (Marc), Joe Shire (Septus), Tracy-Ann Oberman (Tartarus). Other parts played by members of the cast.

Daniel Hopkins thought he knew what he was letting himself in for when he joined the top-secret UNIT organisation as its latest Medical Officer. Racing about the countryside, chasing strange lights in the sky? Check. Defending the realm against extraterrestrial incursion? Check. Frequent ear-bashings from UNIT’s UK CO, the famously no-nonsense Lt-Col Lewis Price? Check. Close encounters of the First, Second and even Third kind? Check, check, check. But he had no idea what alien beings were really like. Until the day of the Fallen Kestrel. Until the day he met the Doctor.Big Finish have been producing Doctor Who audios since 1999, starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant and John Hurt. his release is directed by Jamie Anderson, son of TV legend Gerry Anderson (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Terrahawks, etc). The Doctor in this story is played by Peter Davison, familiar to many viewers and audiences for his years as star of stage and screen. CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Blake Harrison (Lieutenant Daniel Hopkins), Russ Bain (Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Price), Genevieve Gaunt (Corporal Linda Maxwell), Deborah Thomas (Annabel Morden), Anna Louise Plowman (Dr Jennifer Harrison), Robbie Stevens (Morris), Jacob Dudman (Samuel).

You are cordially invited to Argentia, the galaxy’s most exclusive tax haven, to attend the funeral of mining magnate Carlo Mazzini. The memorial service will be followed by music, light refreshments, and murder! Carlo’s heirs have come to say their final goodbyes (and find out how much they’ve inherited) but when a masked killer begins picking them off one by one, Argentia goes into lock-down, closed off behind its own temporal displacement field. Can the Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric apprehend the murderer before Argentia – and everyone on board - is forever cut off from the rest of the Universe? Big Finish have been producing Doctor Who audios since 1999, starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant and John Hurt. This release's director - Barnaby Edwards - is not only a prolific Big Finish director, but as an actor is the lead Dalek operator on TV's Doctor Who. Peter Davison - the Fifth Doctor on television - is also well known from other TV shows such as The Last Detective, Campion and A Very Peculiar Practice, while more recently he's been a significant presence in many high profile West End musical productions including Legally Blonde. CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Samuel West (The Mazzini Family), Phil Cornwell (Superintendent Galgo / Zaleb 5), Sophie Winkleman (Sofia).

The Doctor's adventures in time and space are over. The Time Lords have recalled him to Gallifrey - but what he faces on his home planet is worse than any trial. Following the disappearance of President Borusa, the High Council condemned him to the highest office - and he can't evade his responsibilities a nanosecond longer...So all hail the Lord High President! All hail President Doctor! Rassilon save him. This time, there's really no escape. Big Finish have been producing Doctor Who audios since 1999, starring Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant and John Hurt. Star Peter Davison played the Doctor on television between 1981 and 1984, but this is a part of a much larger body of work including stage work such as Gypsy in the West End with Imelda Staunton. He is the father-in-law to the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant! This story is much-anticipated by fans, as it features not only the Doctor's return to his home planet, but also a meeting with Leela (Louise Jameson), the companion to his fourth self (played by Tom Baker). CAST: Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Louise Jameson (Leela).

Astronomical navigation is a tricky business. To help Adric with his studies, the Doctor sets course for Gallius Ultima -a planet on the edge of the Milky Way, housing one of the most impressive observatories ever constructed. But the TARDIS arrives to find Gallius U in a state of emergency, tracking the return of the Explorer-class ship Johannes Kepler from its mission into the heart of the mysterious Large Magellanic Cloud. A mission that met with disaster...To find out what overtook the crew of the Johannes Kepler, the Doctor and his companions must journey into the heart of the Cloud...and beyond, into the darkness of another reality altogether. The universe of the Star Men. The Star Men marks the first of a trilogy of stories reuniting the 1982 TARDIS crew for Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor - Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton). Director Barnaby Edwards is not only an overworked director for Big Finish productions, but on top of many audiobook voice-over duties, he's also the main Dalek operator in TV's Doctor Who.Sue Holderness takes an overdue dramatic role in this story, but is best known for playing Boycie's wife Marlene in much-loved sitcoms Only Fools and Horses and The Green Green Grass. Guest star Sophie Wu will be familiar to any fans of cult film hits Kiss-Ass and Kick Ass 2, or the much missed spooky BBC series The Fades. CAST: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Matthew Waterhouse (Adric), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Sue Holderness (Kala Tace), Sophie Wu (Autumn Tace), Peter Guinness (Rovus), Damian Lynch (Fell/ Lom), Kris Dyer (Nomar/ Vedrin / Surgical Robot/ Pilot), Barnaby Edwards (Computer).