It's 1945 and Billy Hopkins is off to London to train as a teacher. Billy survives two years in the Big City, and returns to take up a teaching job in Manchester on £300 a year! The catch is his first class, Senior Four, who bitterly resent the raising of the school-leaving age and are all set to take it out on their teacher. Luckily, Billy has some tricks of his own up his sleeve. And he's about to fall in love with the beautiful Laura. But is she, as his dad says, "too good for the likes of us"?

It's 1950, and when Laura and Billy Hopkins return to Manchester from their honeymoon, they're in seventh heaven. But the euphoria gradually evaporates and they settle into a penny-pinching existence. When Billy spots an advertisement for education officers in Kenya, it sounds like the answer to a prayer, despite worries about the Mau Mau rebellion and dangerous creatures. After much debate, the Hopkins set off to Nairobi and start on the biggest adventure of their lives.

Tommy Hopkins' early years aren't very promising. Born at the end of the 19th century in a slum district of Manchester, he's blessed with a loving mam and dad, but they don't have two ha'pennies to rub together. But Tommy is a survivor. At school he quickly makes lots of friends, and together they plot money-making schemes and play football.

It's June 1897, and Kate is celebrating her 11th birthday on the day of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Kate's joy is short-lived, as tragedy strikes, threatening her family with the loss of all they hold dear. Before long, they are evicted from their home in Ancoats, Manchester, and with no wages coming in and a mother unable to cope, Kate has to grow up fast. Her deepest desire is to keep her brothers and sisters together.

It's December 1963 when Billy Hopkins and his wife, Laura, arrive home after five years in Africa. The world they left behind has changed beyond recognition: now, it's the swinging 60s. But Billy's less concerned about the impact of modern society on his family than about the welfare of his increasingly forgetful father and about the daily (and sometimes exquisitely humorous) challenges he faces as a college lecturer.

Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour.

It is 1945, and all over England people are looking forward to being at peace again. Except for one woman. For recently married Zelda, peace means the return of her husband, and this is bad news indeed. Zelda has had to marry Charlie Fluck because she was pregnant by him. And the Fluck clan are backed by the unsavoury Holes, at the centre of whose criminal empire sits Ma Hole like a large malevolent toad. Not only is Zelda frightened of her husband - and she has reason to be, having lost her baby due to a bad "fall" when Charlie pushed her down the stairs.

When 17-year-old Mary O'Connor collapses one Sunday in church she is taken to live with Dr Roberts and his wife in a beautiful Yorkshire village for her health. Though initially employed as a maid, Mary soon becomes the daughter the couple were never able to have. With Britain at war, unable to remain idle, Mary finds employment in the local steel works but when her fiancé Tom Downing is killed in action Mary is convinced it is retribution for their night of sin during Tom's Christmas leave.

Continuing the story of Joe from A Son of War, this is the story of the rapid changes in his life from working-class Wigton to the rarified atmosphere of Oxford as he begins his studies there.

The Adams family were poor, cheerful and, above all, respectable. There was Mrs Adams, a widow having lost her husband in the Boer War; Boots, the bright one; Tommy, the quiet one; Sammy, a wheeler dealer in the making; and Lizzy. Lizzy was a real pearl - one of the prettiest girls in Walworth. Then Lizzy falls in love it is 1914. War is coming, and everyone is going to be affected. Will the Adams family - gutsy, tough and cheeky - pull through? Down Lambeth Way is the first in Mary Jane Staples' Adams Family series. Their story continues in Our Emily.

Ella has lived in the East End of London all her life and when her husband determines to move to Epsom to be near the racecourse he frequents and loves, Ella's refusal to join him breaks up their tempestuous marriage. Ella soon loses the will to keep smart, trim, and fit: until her mother steps in to pick up the pieces. It works: Ella gets a job as barmaid in the British Legion club and begins to take pride in her appearance again. When Dennis turns up for a drink one night, he is taken by surprise.

As Frank Kusy turns 27, he is unexpectedly put in charge of an old people's home in Clapham, South London. Driven to distraction by a crazy cast of characters, he seeks solace in Buddhism, only to find himself up to his ears in plasticine pigs and marathon chanting sessions. Will he make his mum happy by holding down a 'proper' job? Will he make her unhappy by becoming a writer? Will he get to share cheese sandwiches with Kevin in Kathmandu? And will he be forced to exchange his underpants in Japan?

It’s 1940, and war has broken out. It is midnight at the turn of the year, and Walter Gabriel speaks the same line that opened the very first radio episode - 'And a Happy New Year to you all!' For Ambridge, a village in the heart of the English countryside, this year will bring change in ways no one was expecting.

Liverpool, 1939. Bella Rogers thought her life was just starting; she can’t wait to get married to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby. But when war is declared and Bobby is called up, his letters stop, leaving Bella heartbroken and alone. Then her family is torn apart by tragedy when her angelic 5-year-old sister dies from a terrible illness. They can barely afford a funeral, but the church is packed with the entire community, devastated for their loss. Grieving for her sister and lost love, Bella finds a job at the Bryant and May factory, making matches.

Magnus Pym, counsellor at the British Embassy in Vienna, has suddenly vanished, believed defected. The chase is on for a missing husband, a devoted father, and a life-time secret agent. Pym's life, it is revealed, is entirely made up of secrets. The race is on to find the perfect spy.