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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Book of the Week

Audiobooks

Factual

Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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BBC Radio 4 LW

Book of the Week: Tombstone

Book of the Week: Tombstone: Episode 2

Factual: History

Tombstone

Episode 2

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Tombstone, Episode 2

When Yang Jishen's father died of starvation, he thought it was just a personal tragedy.

The untold story of Mao's Great Famine and Yang Jishen's realisation that starvation death was widespread. Read by David Yip.

When Yang Jishen's father died of starvation he thought it was just a personal tragedy but then he discovered his experience had been repeated in families throughout China. His research reveals what he calls "a tragedy unprecedented in world history, when tens of millions of people starved to death during a period of normal climate patterns and with no wars or epidemics." 

Read by David Yip


Produced and abridged by Jane Marshall
A Jane Marshall production for BBC Radio 4.

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Yang Jishen's book on Mao's Great Famine, during which 36 million Chinese starved to death

Yang Jishen's book, banned in China, tells the story of Mao's Great Famine, during which 36 million Chinese starved to death

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