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.

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 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.

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"?

Billy Hopkins lived happily in a tenement home in Manchester with his large Catholic family. When war came, Billy was evacuated to Blackpool, where he was starved so his rations could feed his landlady's children. On his return to Manchester, cruel blows were dealt to his family, but nothing could destroy Billy's fighting spirit. Nostalgic, sad and funny, Our Kid recalls an upbringing and an environment now vanished.

1915. After the recent dramatic events at the Home Depot, Milly Woods is looking forward to spending as much time as possible with her post office girls, Nora and Beth - known as Liza to her friends. With Christmas fast approaching, their job of getting millions of letters and parcels to the troops on the front line is more important than ever. But when Milly is moved to a different department, she and the girls struggle to find time to spend together.

Meet Lady Toad, Mistress Badger, Miss Water Rat and Mrs Mole as they go about their adventures, messing around on the river, gallivanting in Lady Toad’s shiny new toy and fighting valiantly to save Toad Hall from unruly squatters. In this retelling by Dina Gregory, The Wind in the Willows becomes a story about a group of female animals to be admired for their close sisterhood and fierce independence. Featuring original music and songs by Rosabella Gregory and sound effects captured on location, put your headphones on, sit back and lose yourself in the British countryside.

A mother who invented her past, a father who was often absent, a son who wondered if this could really be his family...Richard Glover's favourite dinner-party game is called 'Who's Got the Weirdest Parents?' It's a game he always thinks he'll win. There was his mother, a deluded snob who made up large swathes of her past and who ran away with Richard's English teacher, a Tolkien devotee, nudist and stuffed toy collector.

Jim O’Brien seems to have it all. Prime of life, wonderful family, successful business, and pillar of the community. Then his dark past returns to haunt him. His loved ones are threatened by one of the most vicious gangsters in Glasgow. He’s forced to take part in a massive betting scam.

Fierce Pajamas is a delightful treat, a treasury of laughter from The New Yorker, a publication described by W.H. Auden as "the best comic magazine in existence." This collection features unabridged selections by Steve Martin, Woody Allen, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, and more.

It's 1977 and Jack Sheffield is appointed headmaster of a small village primary school in North Yorkshire. So begins Jack's eventful journey through the school year and his attempts to overcome the many problems that face him as a young and inexperienced headmaster. The many colourful characters include Ruby, the 20-stone caretaker with an acute spelling problem; a secretary who worships Margaret Thatcher; a villager who grows giant carrots; a barmaid/parent who requests sex lessons, and a five-year-old boy whose language is colourful in the extreme.

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.

Journalist, presenter, broadcaster, husband, father, vigorous all-rounder – Alan Partridge – a man with a fascinating past and an amazing future. Gregarious and popular, yet Alan’s never happier than when relaxing in his own five-bedroom, south-built house with three acres of land and access to a private stream. But who is this mysterious enigma? Alan Gordon Partridge is the best – and best-loved – radio presenter in the region. Born into a changing world of rationing, Teddy Boys, apes in space and the launch of ITV, Alan’s broadcasting career began as chief DJ of Radio Smile....

September 1941. Mary arrives in war-torn London nursing a broken heart and a painful secret. When she is offered her dream post as an assistant in the fabric department at Liberty store, she knows this is the fresh start she needs. Amid the store’s vibrant prints and sumptuous interiors, Mary finds a new family who can help her to heal. But not everyone will give Mary such a warm welcome, and the trauma of her past will soon catch up with her. As Mary and the Liberty Girls endure the heartache and uncertainty of war, it will take a steady heart to keep the magic of Christmas alive.