Emily Jackson lives a fast-paced life. Always on the go, able to talk around the clock, with a sensitive soul she loves playing matchmaker for her friends. It's Emily's gay roommate and frequent companion Peter, who becomes again the subject matchmaking skills when handsome new photographer assistant Paolo arrives at the Vogue offices, where Emily works. She makes it her mission to bring the two men together. Unfortunately for her, she is so busy arranging a love connection between Peter and Paolo that she remains completely blind to the one suitor who longs to provide her with the loving companionship that she so cheerfully arranges for others. And so it does make sense that Peter, a screenwriter in the making, starts telling the story from his own point of view.

GULLIVER and TATE - nickname 'Treacle' - are two ordinary 18 year-olds serving in the British Army in Iraq. Their platoon is struggling to maintain the uneasy peace of 2003. When their popular company captain, GODBER, is killed on patrol by a roadside bomb, morale in the platoon hits rock bottom. Acting on orders they round up several suspects from house-to-house searches. That night feelings at the camp are running high and as the chain of command is weakened and events spiral out of control. The lads end their tour of duty and return to England full of stories but also shaken by their experiences. Iraq comes back to haunt them when Gulliver's jilted girlfriend, Shelley, decides to get her own back on him by giving photos of the events in Iraq to the British police. The story hits the press, and Gulliver and Treacle, now the most reviled men in Britain, face court martial...

When a broken hearted boy loses the treasured wooden nativity set that links him to his dead father, his worried mother persuades a lonely ill-tempered woodcarver to create a replacement, and to allow her son to watch him work on it. The commission takes their relationship to unexpected places as the young client makes greater and more difficult demands of the woodcarver's ability, and as Christmas approaches, the three struggle to come to terms with each other, their painful memories and the process of putting their unhappiness behind them.

Poppy Cross is happy-go-lucky. At 30, she lives in Camden: cheeky, playful, frank while funny, and talkative to strangers. She's a conscientious and exuberant primary-school teacher, flatmates with Zoe, her long-time friend; she's close to one sister, and not so close to another. In this slice of life story, we watch her take driving lessons from Scott, a dour and tightly-wound instructor, take classes in flamenco dance from a fiery Spaniard, encounter a tramp in the night, and sort out a student's aggressive behavior with a social worker's help. Along the way, we wonder if her open attitude puts her at risk of misunderstanding or worse. What is the root of happiness?