Böcker utgivna av Samuel French Ltd

Elspeth and Arthur are celebrating forty years of quiet, safe, unspectacular, ordinary marriage. Or so most of the guests attending their anniversary party are led to believe. But knowing her and knowing him as they do, their son and daughter know differently.

“As with the commander of an army, so is it with the mistress of a house”. Isabella Beeton was only twenty three years old when she penned these words in Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, first published in 1861. She could not have predicted how they would resonate with the women of England, nor could she have imagined how her name would become synonymous with culinary expertise and domestic bliss for generations to come.Mrs Beeton Says… is a charming and vibrant musical examining the life and legacy of this extraordinary woman: a spirited journalist, a tireless entrepreneur, and if not a perfect homemaker, then certainly a queen of organization. In a world where a woman could not vote, own a house, nor even ride a bicycle, Mrs Beeton’s book gave the women of England something they desperately wanted: a bit of control.

It is 1934. Winsome Manor is in financial difficulties and, with a heavy heart, the widowed Lady Winsome needs to fire long-standing servants Joe the gardener and James the chauffeur. However, unbeknown to Lady Winsome, James has been using the estate's Rolls Royce for a taxi business and Joe has been profiting from the garden produce.

Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies.

Zinnie Harris reimagines this ancient drama, using a contemporary sensibility to rework the stories, placing the women in the centre. Orestes' leading role is replaced by his sister Electra, who as a young child witnesses her father's murder and is compelled to take justice into her own hands until she too must flee the Furies.

Robert Caplan and his wife are entertaining her brother and sister-in-law. Because Robert insists on uncovering the truth about his brother Martin's 'suicide', many unpalatable revelations ensue which cause Robert to shoot himself. At this point, the opening scene is repeated, but this time they bypass the dangerous corner at which the truth is demanded, thus averting the disaster. Written in 1932 this forms one of the three 'time plays'.

In Here We Go, Churchill confronts the topic of aging and death, told in 3 separate sections.

Caryl Churchill's Pigs and Dogs is substantially based on material from Boy Wives and Female Husbands by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe. It premiered at the Royal Court in 2016.

Three old friends and a neighbour. A summer of afternoons in the back yard. Tea and catastrophe. Escaped Alone premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2016, in a production directed by James Macdonald.

Daughter of the Left Hand centres around the household of Rex Hallam. Rex introduces Nicola, a young girl who, he states, is his daughter by a former mistress. Her arrival causes considerable consternation, and her reception, particularly by Rex's severe and spinsterish elder daughter, is anything but friendly. Shrewd, forthright and understandably resentful of her treatment, Nicola either indirectly by her mere presence, or later directly by her own actions brings disaster to the entire family, and her final surprise to the entire family does nothing to amend matters. - 7 women, 3 men

This is a comedy of confusion. One member arrives at a women's guild meeting to run a jumble sale, others to demonstrate unusual cookery, home-made wine-making and string lampshades respectively. To add to the chaos, an eccentric outsider comes to talk about flower arranging without flowers. They then try competing for five minutes each to decide who should perform at the next meeting. Extraordinary things happen. Then the surprise ending reveals why the misunderstand was, in fact, planned all along. 6 women

SHAFTED moves forwards and backwards over time, starting after the miners strike in 1984. Act One demonstrates the depression and hopelessness which engulfed a West Yorkshire mining village post the strike and the plethora of menial jobs which HARRY found in order to try to make a living. By the late 1990's DOT had suggested they move to Bridlington to start a new life running a Boarding House. Act Two starts in 2016 with DOT suffering from cancer, immobile in a wheelchair, the act moves backwards thought to success of the boarding house and their new life together, to the time they left UPTON to run the boarding house in the 1990's.

Time and Tide is an LGBTQ themed comedy drama about a Norfolk community struggling with change.

A small cast, short version of an intimate psychological thriller taken from Philomel Cottage. Enid rejects her fiancé for newcomer Gerald and moves to a remote country cottage with him – where a dark and terrible climax takes place.

The love between a mother and daughter turns to jealousy and bitterness in this intense and personal drama. Ann Prentice falls in love with Richard Caulfield and hopes for a new life and happiness. Only her daughter, Sarah, takes an instant, jealous dislike to him. Resentment slowly corrodes their relationship as each seeks comfort in the formidable and knowing Dame Laura Whitstable who remarks, “The trouble with sacrifice is that once it’s made it’s not over and done with.”“Christie is beady-eyed and brutally honest on the psychology of the motherdaughter relationship.”THE GUARDIAN“The play is a revelation and its emotional intensity is at variance with most of her crime plays. This is Christie writing with her heart rather than her head. She is not concerned with clues and suspects and alibis but with human dilemmas and life choices.”THE GUARDIAN

In The Wasp’s Nest, Hercule Poirot’s come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. In Yellow Iris, a distressed phone call from a mystery woman brings Hercule Poirot to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes, where a man commemorates the four-year anniversary of his wife’s sudden death – a death under very suspicious circumstances that Poirot himself witnessed. Gathered is everyone present on that fateful night and now Poirot must and a killer in the midst, before they strike again.

A farcical comedy set in 1910. Lucien arrives home in the early hours dressed as Louis XIV. His late arrival and enraptured account of the ball invites the wrath of Yvonne, his wife and it isn't long before the maid, suffering with flu, and the bumbling, elderly manservant are dragged into the argument.

This ingeniously constructed play is set in three separate flats over a bank holiday weekend. Shifting backwards and forwards in time it depicts a triangle of relationships: Michael, a homosexual, who is in love with his flatmate Andrew, who in turn is having an affair with Lesley, whose husband Tom seeks respite from their disintegrating marriage in the arms of Alison.

This triple bill of one act murder mysteries combines: The Wasp’s Nest which sees Hercule Poirot come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place; The Rats, a dark and chilling tale in which a pair of adulterous lovers and themselves lured to a flat, trapped like rats and framed for murder; and finally, The Patient, a tense thriller in which a woman has been hospitalised after seemingly falling from her balcony. 

This classic Christie short story sees Hercule Poirot come between a bitter triangle of lovers to prevent a sinister murder before it takes place. This is part of the triple one act murder mysteries The Rule of Thumb.   

It’s Christmas Eve and Ebenezer Scrooge is miserable and unhappy - will he ever get into the Christmas spirit?Set in North Wales, Dickens’s Festive classic tale explores a living, breathing Victorian community.This adaptation by Alan Harris is a funny immersive family show  lled with music and mystery that whisks away theaudience to a dream world where anything can happen and ghosts are just around the corner…

The genteel thin-lipped Mrs Dobson is irked by her paying-guest, Miss Queenie Tremayne, a vulgar good-natured actress who is fully a match for her, and whose money she needs. She pins her hopes on the marriage of her daughter Sadie to Tony Mortimore, a millionaire's adopted nephew and heir. - 5 women, 2 men

A collection of three radio plays, including a Poirot story, for live performance comprised of Personal Call, Yellow Iris, and Butter in a Lordly Dish.Personal Call sees James Brent haunted by his dead wife when he receives a mysterious telephone call, seemingly from beyond the grave.Yellow Iris marked Hercule Poirot’s debut appearance on radio in which the famous detective is called to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes to solve an old case in which a cold-blooded killer escaped justice and slipped through his fingers.Butter in a Lordly Dish sees eminent prosecution barrister Sir Luke Enderby get his comeuppance in one of Christie’s most gruesome and horrifying murders.

A distressed phone call from a mystery woman brings Hercule Poirot to the hotel Jardin des Cygnes, where a man commemorates the four-year anniversary of his wife’s sudden death – a death under very suspicious circumstances that Poirot himself witnessed. Gathered is everyone present on that fateful night and now Poirot must find a killer in the midst, before they strike again.

The council chambers at Chimneys, the Brent family estate, holds a dark and intriguing secret and someone will stop at nothing to prevent the monarchy being restored in faraway Herzoslovakia.A young drifter finds more than he bargained for when he agrees to deliver a parcel to an English country estate. Little did Anthony Cade suspect that a simple errand on behalf of a friend would make him the centrepiece of a murderous international conspiracy. A sinister plot rife with diamonds, oil concessions, exiled royalty, an elusive master criminal and the combined forces of Scotland Yard and the French Sûreté.“There is more than murder in this story; there is a treasure hunt in it, not for gold but a diamond, and the story is suitably staged for the main part at Chimneys, that historic mansion whose secret will be found.” TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 

Trying to get their hands on more than a little inheritance, a group of young people hide the body of a dead tycoon. But what starts as a lark quickly becomes all too serious when they discover that the body is in fact a murder victim.A comedy about business and finance, with a strong undercurrent of criminal activity, the play combines humour, intricate plotting and a confounding murder.“A different Agatha Christie. The play has deserted the familiar path of the whodunnit type thriller into the realms of black comedy. The action is played for laughs rather than chills, but once the storyline has been established, there is plenty of humour and sparkle to carry it along to the usual surprise climax.”THE STAGE

An enlightened pharaoh falls foul of his conservative court when he attempts to unite the polytheist Egyptians under one God – a course of action that forces factions of both the army and priesthood to turn against him. Undeterred, Akhnaton’s vision of a kingdom where people dwell in peace, truth, love and beauty will ultimately destroy him and all those he holds dear.Regarded as one of her most extraordinary plays, this epic historical drama is unlike anything you have read of Christie’s before.