Alan Bennett

The tales of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad. When Mole goes boating with the Water Rat instead of spring-cleaning, he discovers a new world. As well as the river and the Wild Wood, there is Toad's craze for fast travel which leads him and his friends on a whirl of trains, barges, gipsy caravans and motor cars and even into battle.

Meet Lesley, an actress. She has just completed a video ('targeted chiefly on West Germany') in which she plays Travis, a career girl who enjoys life, spends a remarkable amount of time topless and shoots a man with a harpoon gun. She tells all, blind to the sinister undertones of her story as well as to her own self-delusions and gullibility.

Susan is a vicar's wife suffocated by the expectations forced on her by her position and her husband's over-zealous parishioners. She is also an alcoholic who travels into Leeds to go to the off-licence because of her debts with the local shopkeeper. In frustration, she embarks on an affair with the off-licence owner, Ramesh, discovering something about herself and God in the process.

Erudite, witty and often controversial, The London Review of Books informs and entertains its readers with a fortnightly dose of the best and liveliest of all things cultural. This anthology brings together some of the most memorable pieces from recent years, includes Alan Bennett's Diary, Christopher Hitchens on Bill Clinton's presidency, Terry Castle's hotly-debated reading of Jane Austen's letters, Jerry Fodor taking issue with Richard Dawkins on evolution, Victor Kiernan on treason, Jenny Diski musing on death, Stephen Frears' adventures in Hollywood, Linda Colley on Nancy Reagan, Frank Kermode on Paul de Man and much much more.

'Believe me, my young friend, there is absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In them or out of them, it doesn't matter. Whether you get away or you don't, whether you arrive at your destination or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy.'Ever since the publication of Kenneth Grahame's novel in 1908, the characters of Ratty, Mole, Toad and Badger have delighted generations of readers. Now Alan Bennett has written an adaptation for the stage, a version which is both true to the original and yet carries that distinctive Bennett hallmark. Alan Bennett introduces this edition, writing about the history of the project and the staging of the production.'Bennett is even able to inject the odd sly joke for the adult without bewildering the tots... the result is a delightful evening, a treat for anyone.' The Times

The social services department of the council is preparing a register of the elderly in the area and eager but green June Potter (recently transfered from transport) is despatched to gather information while obtaining some hands-on-experience. Mam and Dad are in their 60s and therefore must be in need of registering - but Mam and Dad, perfectly alert, able-bodied and streetwise have no intention of being registered. Thrown by Mam's no-nonsense approach, the increasingly desperate June resorts to Mr Farquarson's detailed notes on "Conducts of Interviews", while Mam sorts her out. This comic, ironic look at patronizing bureaucracy was first televised in 1982.

Muriel's husband Ralph has just died, leaving her rather well off - until that is, her son Giles gets his hands on the money. Unused to thinking about financial matters, Muriel submits to Giles' plans and comes out the loser as he has invested unwisely. Eventually, neglected by Giles and no longer needed by her disturbed daughter Margaret, Muriel ends the play alone and poor. Brisk, bright and eternally optimistic, she is determined to "soldier on", her persistent cheerfulness striking an icy note in this cool and merciless monologue of self-deception and moral blindness from the stage version of "Talking Heads".

Graham, a middle-aged bachelor, emotionally retarded and chronically dependent on his mother, finds life difficult enough at the best of times. When Mother meets an old flame and seems set to marry him, however, Graham's old insecurities rear their ugly heads again. Fate, eventually, rescues Graham and he resumes his normal life of banal muddle under his mother's amnesiac tyranny.

At work Peggy has carved herself a comfortable niche. Once in hospital, she loses no time in establishing herself as Queen Bee, taking on several responsibilities. Persistently cheerful, blind to the feelings of others and, at heart, terribly lonely, Peggy is at once a richly comic and desperately moving creation, providing a rewarding challenge for a mature actress.

George III's behaviour has often been odd, but now he is deranged, with rumours circulating that he has even addressed an oak tree as the King of Prussia.

This hilarious and unusual play satirizes the ridiculous propensity we often have to show less interest in an artist's work than in meaningless details of his private life, such as his sex life. It begins with Kafka near the end of his life making his famous request to his friend Max Brod that his works be burned at his death. We then flash forward to the present, where Kafka fanatic Sydney, an insurance salesman, is laboring away at an article on Kafka for 'Small Print; The Journal of Insurance Studies'. Who should miraculously appear but Kafka himself, followed closely by Brod and finally by Kafka's father, who wants to vindicate himself to posterity. The penultimate scene takes place in Heaven, where Kafka observes: "I'll tell you something. Heaven is going to be hell."