Frank Crompton
When Denis Midgley's father is rushed to hospital, Midgley drops everything to be by his side. They've never really got on, so Midgley wants to be sure he's there if his father ever regains consciousness. As he hates his job as a schoolteacher, and his home-life with his wife, her senile mother and their insolent teenage son, he has no qualms about lingering around the hospital. But as days turn into weeks, his father obstinately refuses to 'slip away', and Denis' motivation for staying by his father's bedside has more and more to do with Valery, a young nurse.
Lee, a Chinese man, works as a waiter in a hotel in England, despite speaking very little English. Told that a girl called Iris might be interested in him, on his afternoon off work he buys a box of chocolates and sets off to find her.
Miss Shepherd of the registry office is getting a new desk, but things don't go entirely as expected.
Poet Daniel Tasker moves to a small Yorkshire village, where he perturbs and disturbs the locals, except for Lizzie, who has feelings awakened in her that change her life. She breaks with her fiancé David, a local farmer, and her family, and goes to live with Daniel, becoming pregnant. However, after 3 months Daniel is recalled to London and leaves her, and she has to return to live with her mother.
