Best books set in Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England

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Reading lists

14 books set in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

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The ultimate Eurovision-inspired reading list

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Features

How to read – and keep reading – Ulysses

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Audiobooks everyone should listen to, as chosen by our readers

Many writers through history have relied on unusual rituals to get the job done.

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The most unusual writing rituals of famous authors

From Alex Garland to James Joyce, Yaa Gyasi to Kate Chopin, here are some of the most memorable beach scenes captured in literature. 

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The most memorable beach scenes in literature

10 Unmissable Classics

Book at Bedtime: A BBC Radio Collection

A bumper collection of accessible classics from the perennially popular BBC Radio 4 series 
 
This diverse, wide-ranging anthology features readings of 10 of the greatest books in the English language, taken from the BBC's Book at Bedtime and performed by a stellar cast of narrators. Here are nearly 27 hours of sensational stories, from iconic romances and humorous travelogues to pioneering Modernist masterpieces and compelling explorations of the human heart. Comprising much-loved favourites as well as neglected classics, this genre-spanning selection has something for everyone. 
 
This collection includes abridged readings of: 
 
Persuasion by Jane Austen: Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth get a second chance at love following their broken engagement seven years earlier. Read by Juliet Stevenson. 
 
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: An orphaned young woman discovers romance when she meets the charming Mr Rochester. Read by Anne-Marie Duff. 
 
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: Independent Bathsheba Everdene must contend with three very different suitors all vying for her affections. Read by Douglas Hodge. 
 
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson: Stephenson's travelogue from his 12-day hike, taken to distance himself from his love affair with a married woman. Read by Alan Cumming. 
 
The Aspern Papers by Henry James: A nameless narrator goes to Venice to persuade American poet Jeffrey Aspern's lover to let him read Aspern's letters. Read by Samuel West. 
 
Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. Jerome: The Three Men in a Boat return for a bicycle tour through the German Black Forest. Read by Hugh Laurie. 
 
Dubliners by James Joyce: Form-defining stories about life in Dublin at the start of the 20th century. Read by Stephen Rea. 
 
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford: Two couples, two marriages; both seemingly perfect. But beneath the surface lies deception and betrayal. Read by Toby Stephens. 
 
The Rector's Daughter by F.M. Mayor: Mary has spent thirty-five years taking care of others, but with the arrival Robert Herbert her quiet, ordered existence is changed forever. Read by Juliet Stevenson. 
 
Orlando by Virginia Woolf: A playful mock biography of a chameleonic historical figure, immortal and ageless, who changes sex and identity on a whim. Read by Amanda Hale. 
 
First published 1817 (Persuasion), 1847 (Jane Eyre), 1874 (Far from the Madding Crowd), 1879 (Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes), 1888 (The Aspern Papers), 1900 (Three Men on the Bummel), 1914 (Dubliners), 1915 (The Good Soldier), 1924 (The Rector's Daughter), 1928 (Orlando) 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Abridged Edition

Penguin Readers Level 6: Dubliners (ELT Graded Reader)

Penguin Readers is an ELT graded reader series for learners of English as a foreign language. With carefully adapted text, new illustrations and language learning exercises, the print edition also includes instructions to access supporting material online. 
 
Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction, introducing language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. 
 
The eight levels of Penguin Readers follow the Common European Framework of Reference for language learning (CEFR). Exercises at the back of each Reader help language learners to practise grammar, vocabulary, and key exam skills. Before, during and after-reading questions test readers' story comprehension and develop vocabulary. 
 
Dubliners, a Level 6 Reader, is B1+ in the CEFR framework. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing future continuous, reported questions, third conditional, was going to and ellipsis. A small number of illustrations support the text. 
 
In these stories, Joyce describes the lives of ordinary Dubliners. Their lives are not always easy, and they have problems with their families. They were the people who Joyce grew up with and he knew them very well. 
 
Visit the Penguin Readers website 
Exclusively with the print edition, readers can unlock online resources including a digital book, audio edition, lesson plans and answer keys.

James Joyce was born in Dublin on 2 February 1882, the eldest of ten children in a family which, after brief prosperity, collapsed into poverty. He was none the less educated at the best Jesuit schools and then at University College, Dublin, and displayed considerable academic and literary ability. Although he spent most of his adult life outside Ireland, Joyce's psychological and fictional universe is firmly rooted in his native Dublin, the city which provides the settings and much of the subject matter for all his fiction. He is best known for his landmark novel Ulysses (1922) and its controversial successor Finnegans Wake (1939), as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the semi-autobiographical novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). James Joyce died in Zürich, on 13 January 1941.

With carefully adapted text, new illustrations, language practise activities and additional online resources, the Penguin Readers series introduces language learners to bestselling authors and compelling content. Titles include popular classics, exciting contemporary fiction, and thought-provoking non-fiction. 
 
Dubliners, a Level 6 Reader, is B1+ in the CEFR framework. The longer text is made up of sentences with up to four clauses, introducing future continuous, reported questions, third conditional, was going to and ellipsis. A small number of illustrations support the text. 
 
In these stories, Joyce describes the lives of ordinary Dubliners. Their lives are not always easy, and they have problems with their families. They were the people who Joyce grew up with and he knew them very well.

Penguin Classics

Ulysses

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The greatest novel of the twentieth century, now in a beautiful Clothbound Classics centenary edition 
 
 Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th of June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and legal action, and even been deemed blasphemous, but remains an undisputed modernist classic: ceaselessly inventive, garrulous, funny, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive. It confirms Joyce's belief that literature 'is the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man'.

Everybody knows now that Ulysses is the greatest novel of the century

The most important  expression which the present age has found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can escape

Intoxicating ... a towering work, in its word play surpassing even Shakespeare

Following the events of one single day in Dublin, the 16th of June 1904, and what happens to the characters Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and his wife Molly, Ulysses is a monument to the human condition. It has survived censorship, controversy and legal action, and even been deemed blasphemous, but remains an undisputed modernist classic: ceaselessly inventive, garrulous, funny, sorrowful, vulgar, lyrical and ultimately redemptive. It confirms Joyce's belief that literature 'is the eternal affirmation of the spirit of man'.

Celebrating 100 Years of Joyce's masterpiece<h/2> 
 
 The authoritative Hans Walter Gabler text; with a new introduction by Anne Enright. 
 
 Set entirely on one day, 16 June 1904, Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus as they go about their daily business in Dublin. From this starting point, James Joyce constructs a novel of extraordinary imaginative richness and depth. Unique in the history of literature, Ulysses is one of the most important and enjoyable works of the twentieth century. 
 
The survivor of countless controversies, censorships and even claims of blasphemy, this centenary edition of Ulysses comes packaged in a boldly designed new package, befitting of its status as one of the most notorious and influential novels ever written. 
 
'The greatest novel of the century' Anthony Burgess 
Ulysses has had a profound influence on modern fiction... Unforgettable' Guardian 
'A work of high genius' Independent

Ulysses changed the stakes of the novel for ever, letting us see how extraordinary the everyday can be by plugging us straight into the minds of its characters, and using language in an electrifying way that only poets had dared to up till then

The Odyssey, the Divine Comedy and Hamlet whisper their way through its pages: and Ulysses is their equal at every turn

Ulysses, with its comic-epic tapestry, took fiction deeper than ever into the raucous carnival of everyday life

Dirty, blasphemous and unreadable, or one of the greatest novels of the 20th century? No matter what your opinion of it, Ulysses has had a profound influence on modern fiction... Unforgettable

[Gabler's edition is] a required object of study for every scholar working in English literature

James Joyce (Author) James Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 in Dublin. He studied modern languages at University College, Dublin. After graduating, Joyce moved to Paris for a brief period in 1902. In 1904 Joyce met Nora Barnacle, with whom he would spend the rest of his life and they moved to Europe and settled in Trieste where Joyce worked as a teacher. His first published work was a book of poems called Chamber Music (1907). This was followed by Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and the play Exiles (1918). In 1915 the First World War forced Joyce and Nora and their two children to move to Zürich. Joyce's most famous novel, Ulysses, was published in Paris in 1922. In the same year he started work on his last great book, Finnegan's Wake (1939). James Joyce died in Zürich on 13 January 1941. Anne Enright (Introducer) Anne Enright was born in Dublin, where she now lives and works. She has written two collections of stories, published together as Yesterday's Weather, one book of non-fiction, Making Babies, and seven novels, including The Gathering, which won the 2007 Man Booker Prize, The Forgotten Waltz, which was awarded the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and The Green Road, which was the Bord Gáis Energy Novel of the Year and won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. In 2015 she was appointed as the first Laureate for Irish Fiction, and in 2018 she received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature. She is also the recipient of the 2022 Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2024 Writers' Prize for Fiction.

Celebrating 100 Years of Joyce's masterpiece 
 
The authoritative Hans Walter Gabler text; With a new introduction by Anne Enright 
 
Set entirely on one day, 16 June 1904, Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus as they go about their daily business in Dublin. From this starting point, James Joyce constructs a novel of extraordinary imaginative richness and depth. Unique in the history of literature, Ulysses is one of the most important and enjoyable works of the twentieth century.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Joyce's depiction of the early Dublin life of Stephen Dedalus towers over modern literature, providing a stylistic blueprint and creative touchstone for artists young and old

There is nothing more vivid or beautiful in all Joyce's writing. It has the searing clarity of truth...but is rich with myth and symbol

James Joyce is my favourite novelist...Once I had read [this] I knew that I could never create anything that even came close to Joyce's magic

James Joyce (Author) James Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 in Dublin. He studied modern languages at University College, Dublin. After graduating, Joyce moved to Paris for a brief period in 1902. In 1904 Joyce met Nora Barnacle, with whom he would spend the rest of his life and they moved to Europe and settled in Trieste where Joyce worked as a teacher. His first published work was a book of poems called Chamber Music (1907). This was followed by Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and the play Exiles (1918). In 1915 the First World War forced Joyce and Nora and their two children to move to Zürich. Joyce's most famous novel, Ulysses, was published in Paris in 1922. In the same year he started work on his last great book, Finnegan's Wake (1939). James Joyce died in Zürich on 13 January 1941. Joseph O'Connor (Introducer) Joseph O’Connor’s fiction has been published in forty languages. His twenty books include eleven novels, among them the million-selling Star of the Sea, Ghost Light, Shadowplay and My Father’s House, a Washington Post Book of the Year. His work has been shortlisted for the LA Times Book Award, twice for the Whitbread/Costa and twice for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and has won the Nielsen Bookscan Golden Book Award, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi and Premio Napoli, an American Library Association Award, the American Ireland Fund Literary Award, the Hennessy Writer of the Year and Hall of Fame Awards, the Eason/An Post Novel of the Year Award, a Cullman Fellowship at the New York Public Library, the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement and the Prix Madeline Zepter for European Novel of the Year. He is Frank McCourt Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. 
 
 
www.josephoconnorauthor.com

Discover James Joyce's impressionistic portrait of a young man finding his artistic voice in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, reissued to coincide with 100 years since the first publication of his epic masterpiece, Ulysses 
 
EDITED BY HANS WALTER GABLER; WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY DR DIETER FUCHS AND JOSEPH O'CONNOR 
 
Against the backdrop of nineteenth century Dublin, a boy becomes a man: his mind testing its powers, obsessions taking hold and loosening again, the bonds of family, tradition, nation and religion transforming from supports into shackles; until the young man devotes himself to the celebration of beauty, and reaches for independence and the life of an artist.

Dubliners

James Joyce (Author) James Joyce was born on 2 February 1882 in Dublin. He studied modern languages at University College, Dublin. After graduating, Joyce moved to Paris for a brief period in 1902. In 1904 Joyce met Nora Barnacle, with whom he would spend the rest of his life and they moved to Europe and settled in Trieste where Joyce worked as a teacher. His first published work was a book of poems called Chamber Music (1907). This was followed by Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and the play Exiles (1918). In 1915 the First World War forced Joyce and Nora and their two children to move to Zürich. Joyce's most famous novel, Ulysses, was published in Paris in 1922. In the same year he started work on his last great book, Finnegan's Wake (1939). James Joyce died in Zürich on 13 January 1941. John Banville (Introducer) John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1945. His first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970. His other books are Nightspawn; Birchwood; Doctor Copernicus, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1976; Kepler, which was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1981; The Newton Letter, which was filmed for Channel 4; Mefisto and The Book of Evidence, which was shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize and won the 1989 Guinness Peat Aviation Award. John Banville is literary editor of the Irish Times and lives in London with his wife and two sons.

EDITED BY HANS WALTER GABLER WITH INTRODUCTIONS BY SCARLETT BARON AND JOHN BANVILLE 
 
In this powerfully influential series of short stories, James Joyce captures uneasy souls, shabby lives and innocent minds in the dark streets and homes of his native city. In doing so, he conjures uncertainties and desires, illumines moments of joy and sorrow otherwise lost in private memory, and pierces the many mysteries at the heart of things.

James Joyce

Radclyffe Hall

Aldous Huxley

George Orwell

Andrew Scott

Niamh Cusack

Valerie Edmond

Jonathan Coy

Anton Lesser

Tim Piggott-Smith

Pippa Nixon

Christopher Eccleston

Henry Goodman

Stephen Rea

Justin Salinger

Full Cast

Four Full-Cast Dramatisations of Modern Classics

Four modern masterpieces that dared to push boundaries and disrupt the status quo 
 
Deviant. Depraved. Dangerous. Denounced for their transgressive themes and inflammatory ideas, these 20th-century classics have all been considered so seditious that they had to be suppressed. Find out what made these iconic works so threatening to governments worldwide in these superlative dramatisations, featuring stellar casts and specially composed music. 
 
Ulysses – Prosecuted for obscenity in the UK and US, James Joyce’s seminal novel tells the combined stories of Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, as they wander through Dublin on one ordinary day: 16th June 1904. 
 
The Well of Loneliness – Radclyffe Hall’s groundbreaking tale of lesbian love was judged as obscene soon after its publication in 1928, and banned in the UK for over 20 years. It centres around Stephen, a baby girl born to well-to-do parents who grows up feeling ‘different’ and knows she will never be attracted to a man. But will she always be an outcast? 
 
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley's visionary dystopian fable, banned in Ireland and Australia when it first appeared in 1932, portrays a corrupt future society where promiscuity is the norm, eugenics a respectable science and the drug soma is the opiate of the people. Token dissidents Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson long to be free – but it is an outsider, John ‘the Savage’, who shows them the true meaning of rebellion. 
 
Nineteen Eighty-Four – London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Ministry of Truth employee Winston Smith finds love with Julia, the duo begin to question the Party – but for enemies of the state, Room 101 awaits… George Orwell’s classic tale, banned in the Soviet Union until 1988 and still one of the most-challenged books in the USA today. 
 
The star-studded casts of these dramatisations include Andrew Scott, Henry Goodman, Niamh Cusack, Stephen Rea, Valerie Edmond, Amanda Root, Justin Salinger, John Coy, Milton Lopes, Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon and Tim Pigott-Smith. 
 
First published 1918 (Ulysses), 1928 (The Well of Loneliness), 1932 (Brave New World), 1949 (Nineteen Eighty-Four) 
 
 
Cast and credits 
 
Ulysses 
Cast: Stephen Rea, Andrew Scott, Kevin Trainor, Harry Livingstone, Janet Moran, Ronan Raftery, Jim Norton, Joshua Ellershaw, Aidan Dunlop, Henry Goodman, Niamh Cusack, Grainne Keenan, Stephen Hogan, Des McAleer, Christine Absalom, Jonathan Forbes, Bronagh Taggart, Sean Campion, John Rogan, Peter Hamilton Dyer, Joshua Ellershaw, Lorcan Cranitch, Gerard McDermott, Denise Gough, Pip Donaghy, Frances Barber, Susie Riddell 
 
Written by James Joyce 
Dramatised by Robin Brooks 
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer and Jonquil Panting 
Produced by Jeremy Mortimer 
Executive producer: Claire Grove 
Singer: Daire Halpin 
Pianist: Colin Guthrie 
 
The Well of Loneliness 
Cast: Valerie Edmond, Alexandra Bateman, Roberta Kerr, Rob Pickvance, Amanda Root, Sarah Parks, Paul Warriner, Russell Dixon, Katy Cavanagh, Sara Kaplan, Thomas Hudson, Martin Reeve, Paul Warriner, Katy Cavanagh, Malcolm Hebden 
 
Written by Radclyffe Hall 
Dramatised by Sarah Woods 
Directed by Melanie Harris 
Music composed and performed by Odaline de la Martinez 
Celloist: Andy Wardale 
Violinist: Janet Fuste 
 
Brave New World 
Cast: Justin Salinger, Jonathan Coy, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Anton Lesser, Milton Lopes, Karina Fernandez, Nicola Ferguson, Sam Rix, James Lailey, Sean Baker, Scarlett Brookes, Brian Protheroe, Nick Underwood 
 
Written by Aldous Huxley 
Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway 
Directed by David Hunter 
 
Nineteen Eighty-Four 
Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Pippa Nixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kim Wall, Robert Blythe, Sam Alexander, Susie Riddell, Christine Absalom, Don Gilet, Joe Sims and Joshua Swinney 
 
Written by George Orwell 
Dramatised by Jonathan Holloway 
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer 
 
 
(P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Banned Books: A BBC Radio Drama Collection

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James Joyce

Books by James Joyce

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14 books set in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland

The ultimate Eurovision-inspired reading list

How to read – and keep reading – Ulysses

Audiobooks everyone should listen to, as chosen by our readers

The most unusual writing rituals of famous authors

The most memorable beach scenes in literature

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