Susan and Norma have been best friends for years, at first thrust together by force of circumstance (a job at The Pin Cushion, a haberdashery shop in 1990s Leicestershire) and then by force of character (neither being particularly inclined to make friends with anyone else). But now, 30 years later, faced with a husband seeking immortality and Norma out of reach on a wave of professional glory, Susan begins to wonder if she has made the right choices about life, love, work and, most importantly, friendship.

Eighteen-year-old Lizzie Vogel lands a job in a local dentist's office after answering a classified ad for a "mature lady with a strong interest in dental issues." The job comes with an apartment of her own, as well as an eccentric boss, a high-strung coworker, and the occasional call to perform light dentistry herself. It also provides Lizzie with an introduction to Andy Nicolello, the young man of her dreams. Lizzie seizes her chance to find love and soon begins calling him her boyfriend, even though they have never so much as kissed or sat next to each other on the sofa. Navigating the new waters of adult life, Lizzie arrives at an unexpected --- and unexpectedly moving --- destination.

"My mother is not a foodie. But for as long as I can remember, once a year, she becomes possessed of a profound and desperate need to serve up a perfect roast turkey. Faced with a walk into the village, though, she might think 'oh, f*** it' and decide to get a frozen one from Bejams on the 23rd and leave it to defrost in the downstairs toilet for not quite 48 hours." From perennially dry turkeys to Christmas pudding fires, from the round robin code of conduct to the risks and rewards of re-gifting, AN ALMOST PERFECT CHRISTMAS is an ode to the joy and insanity of the most wonderful time of the year.

After succeeding in her quest to help her unconventional mother find a new "man at the helm," 15-year-old Lizzie Vogel simply wants to be a normal teenager. Just when it looks as if things have settled down, her mother goes and has another baby. On top of that, Lizzie's best friend has deserted her for the punk craze, which Lizzie finds too exhausting to commit to herself. But Lizzie soon gets more commitment than she bargained for when she takes a job as a junior nurse at Paradise Lodge, a ramshackle refuge for the elderly that has seen better days. When Paradise Lodge faces a crisis in the form of a rival nursing home, Lizzie must find a way to save her job before she loses the only place she's ever felt she belongs.

Soon after her parents' separation, nine-year-old Lizzie Vogel moves with her siblings and newly single mother to a tiny village in the English countryside, where the new neighbors are horrified by their unorthodox ways and fatherless household. Lizzie's theatrical mother only invites more gossip by spending her days drinking whiskey, popping pills and writing plays. The one way to fit in, the children decide, will be to find themselves a new man at the helm.

Twenty-year-old Nina Stibbe moves to a posh section of London to become a nanny to two young boys, the sons of well-known editor Mary-Kay Wilmers. Nina has no experience as a nanny but jumps right in and soon becomes a valued member of the quirky household. LOVE, NINA is comprised of Nina's letters home to her sister, Victoria. Though the correspondence is one-sided, the reader becomes well acquainted with this family through Nina's frank and often amusing letters.