"In Pianos and Flowers we are invited, through the medium of sepia images, to glimpse a world long departed. In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer. What must it have been like to be them? We hold our breath for them. Our heart beats faster for them. We look again at the photograph in a new light, and say Yes, it might have happened just like that. This...

Follows the lives of the residents of an Edinburgh boarding house.

Emma Woodhouse arrives home in Norfolk ready to embark on adult life. Not only has her sister, Isabella, been whisked away on a motorcycle up to London, but her astute governess, Miss Taylor is at a loose end, abandoned in the giant family pile, Hartfield, alongside Emma's anxiety-ridden father. Someone is needed to rule the roost and young Emma is more than happy to oblige. But there is only one person who can play with Emma's indestructible confidence,...

When Professor Dr. Mortiz-Maria von Igelfeld of The Institute of Romance Philology is mistaken for a veterinarian, he ends up practicing veterinary medicine without a license, operating on a friend's dachshund with unfortunate results; transports relics for a Coptic prelate; and is pursued by lovesick widows on a Mediterranean cruise ship.

There is considerable excitement at The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. A cobra has been found in Precious Ramotswe's office. Then a nurse from a local medical clinic reveals that faulty bloodpressure readings are being recorded there. And Botswana has a new advice columnist, Aunty Emang, whose advice is rather curt for Mma Ramotswes taste. All this means a lot of work for our heroine and her inestimable assistant, Grace Makutsi, and...

Will Bertie ever get away from his overbearing mother? And will we say goodbye to a Scotland Street resident Angus Lordie and his gold-toothed dog Cyril as a jaunt to the hills of Tuscany beckons? They star alongside the familiar cast of favourites, as we follow their daily pursuit of a little happiness.

The lives of the eccentric denizens of Edinburgh's 44 Scotland Street are seen through the eyes of six-year-old Bertie, the Italian-speaking prodigy and saxophonist, who is hoping that his new baby brother, Ulysses, will distract his mother Irene.

While a middle-aged wine merchant tries to emancipate his reluctant adult son from their crumbling Pimlico home, a hated Parliament member incites the disgust of his biography-writing mother and long-suffering literary agent girlfriend.

Investigating allegations against a headmaster candidate for her alma mater, Isabel uncovers surprising truths that hit close to home and unwittingly upsets the father of her young son.

While precocious six-year-old Bertie seeks to escape his overbearing mother by joining the Cub Scouts, Matthew resolves to meet the challenges of married life and Cyril succumbs to romantic temptation.