Three BBC radio adaptations of famous novels by the prolific 19th-century author Margaret Oliphant.

Sometimes called ‘the feminist Trollope’, Margaret Oliphant is an unjustly-neglected British writer of the 19th century, famed for her perceptive, ironic psychology, and her strong female characters. She wrote over 100 works of fiction in a wide variety of genres, ranging from novels of small-town life to historical tales and supernatural stories. Included here are three of her best-loved works, brimming with dry wit and flawed but fascinating heroines.

Miss Marjoribanks – Lucilla Marjoribanks, a large and determined girl, returns from school with two resolves – to comfort her recently widowed father and to revolutionise society. She becomes the doyenne of Carlingford’s social circle with her Thursday soirees – but her plans are disrupted by her friends’ romances, a new arrival, the solving of a mystery and a wedding….

Phoebe Junior – Phoebe Beecham has met Clarence Copperhead at a Ball in London. His wealthy father disapproves of her and she fortuitously leaves London to visit her sick Grandmother in Carlingford. But a shock awaits her on arrival….

Hester – In this deliciously sardonic tale of credit and discredit, a young woman in a 19th Century Cheshire town, having been snubbed and discarded in marriage, does something truly radical. When the family bank is in danger, she pledges her private fortune to save it – but insists on running it herself, as a single woman, in defiance of all convention.