Lolita Chakrabarti

To mark the 70th anniversary of the birth of the NHS, acclaimed poet Owen Sheers takes us on a journey that weaves the extraordinary story of the birthing of Nye Bevan's vision of free healthcare for all people with personal stories of the NHS in British society today.

London, June 29th, 1613. The Globe Theater, ran by the famous playwright William Shakespeare, accidentally burns to ashes. Seriously affected, he stops writing and returns to his hometown, where his wife Anne and daughters Judith and Susanna get surprised to hear he intends to stay there definitively, after two decades working in the capital, neglecting his sincere affections for them.

Suburban housewife Liz discovers that husband Stephen is abusing their daughter. She confronts him and reports him to the authorities, but also decides to try to help him recover from what must be "a sickness". Stephen is tried and imprisoned. When he leaves prison, Liz arranges for him to receive treatment at a residential clinic for sex offenders, where he undergoes intensive therapy. Stephen finally faces his guilt and the consequences of his abuse. The family decide to rebuild their lives together. Is this right? Is it even possible? And – if they do - what's the emotional cost?

A semi-secret fraternal organization modeled loosely on the Masons apparently appears to be running a life insurance scam.

Maurice is an aging veteran actor who becomes taken with Jessie, the grandniece of his closest friend. When Maurice tries to soften the petulant and provincial young girl with the benefit of his wisdom and London culture, their give-and-take surprises both Maurice and Jessie as they discover what they don't know about themselves.

Four teenagers at a British private school secretly uncover and explore the depths of a sealed underground hole created decades ago as a possible bomb shelter.

While English professor Loretta Lawson is attending a conference in Paris, she stays the night in the flat of a friend's acquaintance. She discovers a sleeping man in one of the bedrooms, and the next morning finds the man gone, but the bed soaked with blood. Returning to Cambridge, she begins to suspect her friend's acquaintance, and others on the staff of the college, are involved with the missing (murdered?) man, and decides to investigate for herself.