Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books, both novels and non-fiction works, as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

This collection includes BBC Radio dramatisations of some of Huxley’s best known novels.

Brave New World – It’s 2116, and Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson are token rebels in an irretrievably corrupted society where promiscuity is the norm, eugenics a respectable science, and morality turned upside down. There is no poverty, crime or sickness – but no creativity, art or culture either. Human beings are merely docile citizens: divided into castes, brainwashed and controlled by the state and dependent on the drug soma for superficial gratification.

The Dwarves – Sir Hercules and his wife, Filomena, are dwarves who have turned their country estate into a haven for others like themselves. This world of peace and harmony exists for many years until it becomes threatened from a most unexpected quarter.

Antic Hay – When inspiration leads Theo Gumbril to design pneumatic trousers to ease the discomfort of a sedentary life, he decides to give up teaching and seek his fortune in London. But his dreams seem to disappear as he gets caught up in the world of his self absorbed friends. A wicked satire on the glittering hedonism of the 1920s.

The Gioconda Smile – Henry feels anger and guilt as his first wife lies upstairs confined to her bed. He finds solace in his relationship with Janet Spence and their shared love of art. He also finds pleasure in an affair with Doris. Then, his wife Emily dies suddenly – but what, exactly, caused her heart failure?

The Genius and the Goddess – Thirty years ago, ecstasy and torment took hold of John Rivers. He had an affair with the wife of his mentor, Henry Maartens – a pathbreaking physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize – bringing the couple to ruin. Now, on Christmas Eve while his small grandson sleeps upstairs, Rivers is moved to set the record straight about the great man and the radiant, elemental creature he married, who viewed the renowned genius through undazzled eyes.