A boy is born in a workhouse, orphaned before he even knows his own name, and raised on watery gruel and cruelty.

Then, one day, he does something unthinkable. He asks for more.

That small act of defiance gets him thrown out into the world alone — and the world he stumbles into is far darker than anything he could have imagined. There are pickpockets, thieves, a sinister old man who collects lost boys, and a secret about his past that certain people would kill to keep buried.

Will he find the kindness he's been searching for? Or will London swallow him whole?

This is *Oliver Twist* by Charles Dickens.

I'm Roger Braveheart, and welcome to *TWIG 74* — grab a cuppa, settle in, and think of this as a free audiobook, on me.

Here's the deal. I take brilliant classic novels and retell them, trimmed down but with all the drama and atmosphere still intact. So what you're getting today is a summarised version of *Oliver Twist* — about 60 minutes, give or take, depending on how long and how complicated the original book is. And believe me, the full thing would take you many, many hours to get through. My job is to take Dickens's big, sprawling story and squeeze it into something you can enjoy in one sitting, keeping the important bits and the moments that really hit you.

I did try 30-minute versions for a while, but honestly? I was cutting out far too much good stuff.

Oh, and one more thing — this comes straight from what Dickens actually wrote. Not the films, not the telly adaptations, not the abridged versions knocking about, which love to shuffle events around, tidy things up, or change whole chunks of the story.

I try to get a new episode out at least once a week, on Sundays, so it's ready and waiting for you when the working week kicks off.

If you fancy dropping me a line, the show's email is twig74@mailo.com. I genuinely love hearing your feedback, and if you've got a favourite classic you'd like me to read on a future episode, send it my way.

Right then — make yourself comfortable, picture the fog rolling through the dark streets of Victorian London, and let's get started.