Marriage to her publisher, Arthur Abbott, has done nothing to stop Barbara Buncle from involving herself in the lives of her neighbours. After leaving Silverstream and moving to London, Barbara and Arthur are enjoying their newly-wedded bliss, but not the city life. The only solution to their problem? Returning to the country. Silverstream is out of the question, but Barbara eventually finds the perfect candidate in the town of Wandlebury.

Barbara Pym is one of the 20th-century's wittiest, and most underrated, novelists. Her perceptive comedies of manners, centred around the domestic lives and loves of unassuming middle-class Englishwomen, won her many devoted readers and saw her hailed as a modern-day Jane Austen. Yet she spent 15 years out of print in the 1960s and '70s, until Philip Larkin championed her work in the Times Literary Supplement. Her seventh novel was subsequently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and writers from Jilly Cooper to Alexander McCall Smith continue to laud her talent today. 

Katherine Wentworth has married her hero, Alec Macfarlane. On their honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands, she can scarcely believe that the four previous lonely years can have been replaced by so much joy. But her unclouded happiness does not last long. The return to Edinburgh brings her into conflict with her old school friend, Alec’s sister Zilla. A beautiful woman who had expected Alec to remain a lifelong companion, devoted only to her.

Hester Christie has spent a blissful 18 months living in Kenya, where husband Tim is posted. But now it’s back to England to be with her two nearly grown children. She rents a house near the village of Old Quinings in England’s North Country and plans a quiet summer with the children near the inn owned by her beloved former maid Annie and her husband. But things are never quiet for long with Mrs Tim, and she must navigate curious neighbours, a dishonest landlady and a troublesome travel companion who makes an unwelcome appearance in Old Quinings.

When Dinah was 19, Gilbert was a sort of fairy prince. She had loved him madly but gradually she had begun to realise that he was not quite so wonderful. Despite keeping her eyes firmly shut, her heart had known there was something wrong. When Gilbert is killed in a flying accident, she is left with four children to raise. Life is hard, fighting back loneliness and eking out a meagre pension. But when her brother, Dan, newly demobbed from the Navy, arrives to whisk them away to the seaside, Dinah can at last find peace.

Bel, an orphan daughter of an Army colonel, is brought up in an English village and flung into the whirl of London life to earn a hard living as a secretary while attempting to navigate romance, unexpected friendships and urban life. Shy and sensitive, she is unaware of the pitfalls that surround her. When Bel is offered a chance to leave London and venture to a fishing hotel in Scotland for a much needed holiday with an old school friend, things begin to change. There she learns that you cannot escape from your troubles by running away from them.... 

Jane Fortune causes a stir when she arrives in the small community of Dingleford. She has bought an old cottage and plans to open a tearoom. Old friends Charles Weatherby and Harold Prestcott both fall for the newcomer, but her behaviour seems to vary wildly – she encourages first one then the other and at other times barely recognises them. Is there more to the fair Miss Fortune than meets the eye?

Despite his passionate love for Ardfalloch, Iain has been driven to let his home and estate to Mr Hetherington Smith, a wealthy London businessman, and his kindly wife (who was, truth be told, happier when they were poor). MacAslan stays on in a cottage by the loch, aided by his devoted keeper Donald and Donald’s wife, Morag. But he finds himself irresistibly drawn to Linda Medworth and her young son, invited to Ardfalloch by Mrs Hetherington Smith. 

It's not easy being a Provincial Lady in Devonshire in the 1920s, juggling a grumpy husband, mischievous children and a host of domestic dilemmas - from rice mould to a petulant cook. But this Provincial Lady will not be defeated; not by wayward flower bulbs, not by unexpected houseguests, not even by the Blitz. She will continue to preside over the W.I., endure rain-drenched family picnics and succeed as a published author, all the while tending to her strawberries.

The tangled destinies of an unusual family are played out against the backdrop of the English countryside where two pretty sisters and a beautiful widow take centre stage in a drama of dangerous flirtation and backstairs gossip. Esther Musgrave, an attractive widow, has her hands full trying to keep her energetic family together – and on speaking terms! Her three daughters, prickly Delia, sensible Meg and carefree Rose, mean everything to her, especially since the death of her husband, Charles.

Charlotte Fairlie is a successful, elegant career woman. Still in her 20s, she has landed a job as headmistress of her old school. She is admired and liked by both staff and pupils - but she begins to feel there is something missing in her well-organised life. Then one summer she goes to stay with a young pupil on the remote Scottish Isle of Targ. In the romantic atmosphere of the Highlands, anything can happen - and even the cool, efficient Charlotte surprises herself.

Since being widowed, Caroline Dering has been content to live her life solely for her children. Then the mysterious Robert Shepperton arrives in the village. At first, Caroline's gentle heart is simply touched by his obvious unhappiness; until gradually she finds her sympathy turning into love. But the visit of her lovely younger sister, Harriet, to Vittoria Cottage, throws Caroline into a turmoil - because Harriet also falls for Mr. Shepperton....

Beth Kerr is the daughter of the boatman in the small village of Kintoul. Her mother died at an early age, after an unhappy marriage that caused her family to cast her aside. As the years pass, Beth grows into a beautiful young woman, watched over by the quiet Peter West. The owner of Kintoul House, Peter is a lonely man with a weak heart and few family members and friends. They both struggle with their feelings for one another, before being forced to embark on marriages decided upon by their families.

Recently married to Charles, Sarah is furnishing a cottage in Scotland and starting on a life in sharp contrast to their wartime experiences. Their full entrance into village life is helped by Sarah's delightful grandparents, who have given them the land on which they have built their cottage.

Sharply observant and wickedly funny, E.F. Benson's six Mapp and Lucia novels satirize the upper-middle-class social climbers in 1920s and '30s rural England. Games of bridge and cups of tea fuel hilarious gossip and vindictive plots a-plenty. It is a masterfully sustained spotlight on the minutiae of village life - a clever and ultimately heart-warming series that seems tailor-made for audio. Volume 1 contains the first three books.