Meet Willa Knox, a woman who stands braced against a world which seems to hold little mercy for her and her family - or their old, crumbling house, falling down around them.

With VENUS, Hanif Kureishi turns his piercing gaze onto the pains of old age. Maurice (Peter O'Toole) and Ian (Leslie Phillips) are veteran stage actors whose slow, inevitable decline is disrupted by the arrival in their lives of Ian's niece Jessie (Jodie Whittaker).

'On the whole, it was easier than I had expected. Only once did I feel myself at risk. Took her away from you some people might say. Didn't you feel any grievance?" I had been expecting this question. I knew exactly what I would say.' The late, great P. James takes us inside the mind of a murderer.

Lotti's horrible aunt and uncle want to send her away to boarding-school (when she has just so successfully managed to get expelled from her last one!) And Clara, their young teacher, is waiting for news of her missing fiance. Just as they think they've found their feet in the new order, disaster strikes, and Lotti and Ben must get away.

One summer, Simon Armitage decided to walk the Pennine Way - a challenging 256-mile route usually approached from south to north, with the sun, wind and rain at your back.

If he's lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he only has two years of this, 729 more nights. The best thing that can happen is that he survives and gets off the Wall and never has to spend another day of his life anywhere near it. Along with the rest of his squad, he will endure cold and fear day after day, night after night.

If he's lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he only has two years of this, 729 more nights. The best thing that can happen is that he survives and gets off the Wall and never has to spend another day of his life anywhere near it. Along with the rest of his squad, he will endure cold and fear day after day, night after night.

For thousands of years, humans have built walls and assaulted them, admired walls and reviled them. In Walls, David Frye uncovers a story that is more than just bricks and stone: he reveals the startling link between what we build and how we live, who we are and how we came to be.