London 1893. When Cora Seaborne's controlling husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Retreating to the countryside with her son, she encounters rumours of the 'Essex Serpent', a creature of folklore said to have returned to roam the marshes. Cora is enthralled, believing it may be an undiscovered species. Setting out on its trail, she collides with local minister William Ransome, who thinks the cure for...

Norfolk, 1643. With civil war tearing England apart, reluctant soldier Thomas Treadwater is summoned home by his sister, who accuses a new servant of improper conduct with their widowed father. By the time Thomas returns home, his father is insensible, felled by a stroke, and their new servant is in prison, facing charges of witchcraft. Thomas prides himself on being a rational, modern man, but as he unravels the mystery of what has happened, he uncovers...

1964. Best friends Sandra and Linda live on a housing estate in Essex. They are mods: they have the clothes, a coffee bar with a juke box and Ready Steady Go! on television on a Friday night. And they have the Corn Exchange, where the best bands play. But the world around them is changing fast. Against the backdrop of the Ban-the-Bomb marches and clashes between mods and rockers, it's time for Linda and Sandra to grow up. As Sandra blindly pursues...

?If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?? England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith?s son from Putney emerges from the spring?s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness...

When the bones of two severed hands are discovered in a box, an investigation into a long-buried crime of passion begins. The grisly discovery leads a group of friends, who played together as children, to question their pasts.