The Vellumwise library

Find a story worth following.

No series is on sale yet. 3 in development, 117 planned.

120 series

Planned

The Reading Room

Sam reads easily but never thought about how. As he learns how reading is taught, he must deal with a stretched school, a possible assessment and a daughter who has decided she is “stupid” — and with his own memories of school.

Learning & education

In development

After the Restructure

Ninety days of severance, a mortgage with twelve years left, and a council that disagrees about whether he should challenge the dismissal, retrain into data, consult or move sideways.

Work & careers

Planned

The Promotion

Her best friend applied for the same job. Over two years Leah learns feedback, delegation and fairness, and — when cuts arrive — how to tell someone she cares about that their job is at risk without abandoning either the process or the friendship.

Work & careers

Planned

Runway

Users like the product; not enough of them pay for it. Nadia’s investors want growth, her co-founder wants a pivot and her savings are gone.

Business & entrepreneurship

Planned

Night Feeds

Every relative, app and leaflet disagrees. The first year is a run of exhausting small decisions, and Ellie and Ade learn to tell evidence from opinion while their relationship bends under sleep loss and well-meaning interference.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

Couch to Start Line

Twenty weeks, no running history and a brother who never lets him forget it. Ravi learns how training actually works, gets injured, and has to decide whether finishing the race matters more than his health and his pride.

Fitness & sport

Planned

Strength

Her physiotherapist says strength is her best protection; the gym terrifies her.

Fitness & sport

Planned

The Bench

Surgery is likely; a return is possible but not certain. Jade’s recovery is told honestly — the boredom, the setbacks, the friends who keep playing without her, and the question of who she is without the game.

Fitness & sport

Planned

Small Print

The flat is shared with a lodger and, later, a friend on a joint tenancy. Bisi learns what tenancy law says, what it does not, and how much depends on paperwork she never read — while her neighbours start bringing her their letters too.

Law & your rights

Planned

Small Claims

Two cases run side by side: Tomás against a dealer and finance company, and his neighbour Jiro chasing an unpaid translation invoice.

Law & your rights

Planned

Two Households

Amicable lasts until school runs, money and a new partner test every promise. The series keeps the children’s experience at its centre as the family learns to live across two homes, and as the adults discover they still have things to learn from each other.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

Couples

Twelve sessions, then a decision. The series stays inside the therapy room and the house afterwards, showing how couples therapy actually works, what it can repair, and the moment when staying together and separating well both look like success.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

The Habit Clinic

Her editor turns her struggle into a public experiment. Maya tests habit science on her phone use, her work and her relationship, reports every failure in print, and discovers that some of the most famous habit advice does not hold up.

Psychology & mental health

Planned

Under Pressure

Isla wonders whether exhaustion is changing her judgement. Her hospital wants a quick fix; she discovers the problem is partly hers and partly the system’s, and that speaking up has costs of its own.

Psychology & mental health

Planned

The Persuaders

His daughter notices before he does. Together they unpick how the scam works, try to recover the money and face the shame that keeps victims silent — while the scammers return with a “recovery service” that is a second scam.

Money & personal finance

Planned

Everything Is Due

Kemi is brilliant and permanently late. She tries planning systems, attention strategies and finally honesty with her supervisor as the deadline closes in, learning that systems have to fit the person using them.

Practical life skills

Planned

Joint Account

Hannah has no access to her own wages and a credit file she does not recognise. Leaving safely takes planning, help and courage; the series follows her from recognition to independence without pretending the path is quick or simple.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

First Keys

Five years of saving, rising rates and two families with opinions. Zara and Ollie learn the true cost of buying, lose an auction they should never have entered, and have to decide whether renting is the smarter choice for them after all.

Home & housing

Planned

Accidental Landlord

Callum thought renting would be passive income. Registration, safety rules, a tenant in difficulty and a tax bill teach him otherwise, and he must choose between his finances and his conscience when the tenant falls into arrears.

Home & housing

Planned

Damp

Ngozi has a limited budget and a house that needs everything. She learns to diagnose damp, prioritise energy upgrades and hire builders without being exploited, and discovers the house was telling her what was wrong all along.

Home & housing

Planned

Between Two Addresses

Ana has a lease, a residence registration and no job. As an EU citizen she has rights, but every system expects paperwork she does not have, and she must decide whether to stay before her savings decide for her.

Migration & life abroad

Planned

The Credential

Twelve years of practice count only as a starting point. Farah faces exams, residency matching and a family living on her husband’s warehouse wage, and must decide what she is willing to give up to practise medicine again.

Migration & life abroad

Planned

Late Bloom

His granddaughter has a keyboard and he has always wanted to play. Desmond learns that adult beginners can progress — slowly, with plateaus and frustration, and with a joy he did not expect to find in scales.

Arts, crafts & creative work

Planned

The Manuscript

Tilly revises, queries agents, considers small presses and self-publishing. The series treats craft and the business of publishing with equal seriousness, and lets her choose a route that suits her book.

Arts, crafts & creative work

Planned

Small Batch

Ruth must decide whether selling will ruin what she loves. Pricing, production, tax and her own burnout arrive at once, and the order teaches her what kind of maker she wants to be.

Arts, crafts & creative work

Planned

The Insurance Question

A claim lands and the small print suddenly matters. Callum learns what he is and is not insured for at work, at home and in his health, and fights an insurer that would rather he went away.

Money & personal finance

Planned

The Settlement

Shireen and her husband both want it over; neither wants to lose. From financial disclosure to the final order, the series shows how money is divided on divorce, what it costs to fight, and how the children notice everything the adults think they are hiding.

Law & your rights

Planned

The Retirement Number

Two 401(k)s, Social Security decisions and health costs before Medicare. They want to stop work; the numbers are uncertain and the two of them disagree about what retirement is for.

Money & personal finance

Planned

Room 14

Year 9 group C has outlasted three teachers. Priya learns classroom craft — clear explanation, routines, relationships — and when to ask for help, while one pupil’s home life tests every rule she sets.

Learning & education

Planned

Different Lines

Ellis always thought he was lazy. The assessment changes how school, family and he himself understand his work, with exams a year away and a teacher who still thinks he is not trying.

Learning & education

Planned

The Gig

Twelve-hour days until a crash takes him off the road and out of income. Kwame learns how platform work is classified, taxed and insured — and what he can and cannot change about it.

Work & careers

Planned

Return to Work

Her skills are rusty, childcare costs more than she expected and her old employer offers a returnship.

Work & careers

Planned

The Whistle

A batch of certificates does not add up, and his manager tells him to sign. Owen chooses to report, and learns what legal protection means in practice — and what it does not cover.

Work & careers

Planned

Distributed

A product launch in four months, a team that only meets on video and trust fraying across cultures.

Work & careers

Planned

First Export

A London retailer wants a container in eight weeks. Customs, labelling and currency all arrive at once, and her grandfather’s grove suddenly depends on paperwork as much as on olives.

Business & entrepreneurship

Planned

Second Opinion

One doctor recommends surgery; another suggests active surveillance. Gordon, a retired engineer who trusts numbers, must decide with incomplete evidence, and live with the decision whichever way the next two years go.

Health & medicine

Planned

Persistent

Surgery is offered, painkillers are failing and work is slipping away. Callum learns modern pain science and rebuilds his life around function rather than the hunt for a single cause.

Health & medicine

Planned

Outbreak

Three cases in a week and a parents’ group spreading rumours. Aisha learns how outbreaks are traced and controlled, and how to rebuild trust with parents who have stopped believing official advice.

Health & medicine

Planned

Making Weight

Four kilos over and three weeks to go. Danny learns why rapid dehydration cuts are dangerous and how long-term weight management works, and his coach has to unlearn habits that once nearly hurt him.

Fitness & sport

Planned

Deep End

His daughter starts swimming lessons and he wants to be in the pool with her, not watching from the side.

Fitness & sport

Planned

Touchline

Twelve children, pushy parents and a season to survive. Sian learns coaching, child development and safeguarding, and has to decide whether to play to win or to develop every child when the league table and her own son pull her both ways.

Fitness & sport

Planned

Two Heartbeats

Conflicting advice arrives from every direction: stop everything, carry on as normal, buy this programme.

Fitness & sport

Planned

Data Subject

Her fertility data is on a forum. Aoife learns her data rights and takes on a company that would rather she went away, discovering along the way how much of her life sits in other people’s databases.

Law & your rights

Planned

Arrested

A night in custody, a police interview and a charge decision. Reece and his mother learn criminal process the hard way, and the question of what really happened that night stays open longer than anyone expects.

Law & your rights

Planned

Trying

Investigations, NHS funding limits and private IVF quotes. The couple learn fertility medicine and what success rates really mean, and test their relationship against hope, cost and the question of when to stop.

Health & medicine

Planned

The Grievance

Arash files a grievance and faces investigation, retaliation and a choice between a settlement and a tribunal.

Work & careers

Planned

Blended

Joel marries Fiona and inherits her teenagers’ suspicion. Over years he learns stepfamily dynamics, earns a place he cannot demand, and discovers that being trusted matters more than being called Dad.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

Chosen

Leo has lived in three foster homes. Love is not the same as trust, and the family learns how to build it over years, through school crises, contact with his birth family and adolescence.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

After

Overnight he is both parents. Hamid learns how grief works in families while trying to keep a job, a home and two children who grieve in completely different ways — one loudly, one not at all.

Relationships, parenting & family

Planned

The Worry

She freezes in exams she has prepared for. Leila learns what anxiety is and how evidence-based treatment works, and discovers that asking for help was the hardest exposure task of all.

Psychology & mental health

Planned

Odds

Small bets became a hidden debt. Ricky’s recovery involves treatment, honesty and his partner’s choice whether to stay, and the series follows him through a relapse rather than pretending recovery is a straight line.

Psychology & mental health

Planned

Blind Spot

Annika prides herself on fairness. Her own hiring data says otherwise, and fixing it changes how she makes every decision — at work, at home, and about the career she thought she had chosen freely.

Psychology & mental health

Planned

Nightshift

His sleep, mood and marriage are suffering. Tariq learns the science of sleep and what shift workers can change, and finds that some of the answers lie in the rota rather than in himself.

Psychology & mental health

Planned

Cooking for One

His children visit at weekends and he wants to cook for them. Gerald learns to cook, shop and eat well on a budget, and the kitchen becomes the place where he rebuilds his relationship with his teenage daughter.

Practical life skills

Planned

The Presentation

Ingrid designs bridges and dreads microphones. Her project’s funding depends on one presentation to the board, and in a month she must learn structure, voice and how to handle hostile questions from a sceptical chairman.

Practical life skills

Planned

Dog Days

A neighbour complaint and a near-bite put the dog’s future at stake. The family learns dog behaviour, training and their legal duties, and each family member learns something different from the dog.

Practical life skills

Planned

Moving Day

New jobs, new schools and the real cost of a city. Kwame learns how to choose a neighbourhood, secure school places and settle children who did not want to move.

Home & housing

Planned

Smaller Rooms

Selling the family home means releasing money, losing a garden full of memories and disappointing a son who expected to inherit it.

Home & housing

Planned

Self-Build

They buy a plot with planning hopes and a budget that looks generous until the first quote.

Home & housing

Planned

The Hedge

Notes through the door escalate to solicitors’ letters. Brenda learns boundary law, nuisance rules and mediation, and discovers that being right is expensive — and that her neighbour has troubles of his own she had never asked about.

Law & your rights

Planned

Sending Home

Every month a fifth of her wage goes home. A fee change and a family emergency push Rosa to learn the economics of remittances and to plan for herself too, while her family in Accra learn a little about her life in London.

Migration & life abroad

Planned

Family Visa

The income rule, the evidence bundle and a refusal on a technicality. Daniel and Amira learn spouse-visa law while living two thousand miles apart, appeal the refusal, and discover how much of a marriage can survive on video calls.

Migration & life abroad

Planned

Uncredited

Yaw’s sunset photo is on a billboard, with someone else’s name on it. He learns copyright and licensing, wins a fair payment without a costly lawsuit, and realises his hobby might be worth more than he thought.

Arts, crafts & creative work

Planned

The Allotment

The allotment committee gives him six months to clear it or lose it. Arthur, widowed and lonely, learns to grow food, read soil and accept help from neighbours he had walked past for years.

Arts, crafts & creative work

Planned

Opening Night

She auditioned for the chorus and was given the lead. In eight weeks Philippa must learn acting craft — text, voice, movement and ensemble — while her day job and a jealous cast member make it harder.

Arts, crafts & creative work

Planned

Voice

Hoarseness has become a pattern and the school is losing patience. Tess learns how the voice works, why teachers are at risk, and how voice therapy and technique protect a working voice — and finds her way back to singing, which she had given up years ago.

Health & medicine

Planned

The Feed

Half a million followers, and then an 80 per cent drop in views overnight. Tamsin learns how platforms pay, what brand contracts really mean and how to build a business she controls, while working out whether she still loves cooking or only the numbers.

Digital life & technology

Planned

Fabricated

A fabricated video of her spreads through the school in a day. Rebecca’s job, reputation and safety are at risk, and she learns about digital evidence, the law on image-based abuse, and how a school should — and sometimes fails to — protect its staff.

Digital life & technology

Planned

The Assistant

Productivity targets rise, errors appear and colleagues fear for their jobs. Hollie learns how AI tools work, where they fail and how to use them responsibly, and becomes the person her manager trusts to say when the machine is wrong.

Digital life & technology

Planned

Entrance

Their daughter Amara is bright and anxious. The family must decide how hard to prepare for an entrance exam, what matters more than the result, and how to protect her younger brother from becoming an afterthought.

Learning & education

Planned

Benefits

A reassessment slashes her award and her independence with it. Gail challenges the decision through redetermination and tribunal, learning how evidence works and finding allies in a welfare-rights office she had never heard of.

Civic life & public services

Planned

First Hire

One hire becomes two, and then a performance problem with someone she likes. Orla learns contracts, payroll and fair management, and discovers that being a good employer is a skill rather than a personality trait.

Business & entrepreneurship

Planned

Open Wide

A treatment plan he cannot afford and a fear he cannot explain. Barry learns dental care options, costs and how to manage anxiety, and finally keeps an appointment he has been cancelling for eleven years.

Health & medicine

Planned

Footprint

The family tackles travel, food, spending and pensions — leaving home energy to the experts — and finds out which changes matter and which are symbolic.

Environment & sustainability

Planned

Dry Season

Debts are high, the rains have failed twice and his uncles want to sell. Kofi learns drought-resilient farming and water management, and joins a cooperative that changes how the whole valley farms.

Environment & sustainability

Planned

Flood Line

Her insurance rises and the house may lose value overnight. Helen learns how flood risk is assessed, what defences can and cannot do, and how to make her home resilient, before the first winter flood arrives.

Environment & sustainability

Planned

Green Claims

The evidence is thin and the launch deadline is Friday. Chloe learns green-claims law and the science of offsets, and must decide whether to sign off a claim she suspects is misleading.

Environment & sustainability

Planned

The Essay

Tempted by AI shortcuts after two failed essays, Tomi faces an academic-integrity hearing that could end his degree — and learns, with help he resented at first, how to research, argue and write.

Learning & education

Planned

Forgetting

Unpaid bills, a kettle left on and a mother who insists nothing is wrong. Joanna navigates assessment, diagnosis and five years of care, learning to love the person her mother is becoming.

Ageing & later life

Planned

The Arrangements

Their father’s capacity is declining, the siblings disagree about almost everything, and care costs are rising faster than anyone planned.

Ageing & later life

Planned

Driving Lessons

After her brother is injured in a crash, Nisha has avoided cars for years. When her mother needs regular hospital visits, she finally learns to drive, fails her first test and passes the second with a quiet determination she did not know she had.

Practical life skills

Planned

The Cluster

Residents believe the water is killing their children. Nadia investigates, learns the statistics of chance and risk, and must decide what to publish when the evidence is uncertain and the families are grieving.

Science & evidence in everyday life

Planned

Results

A risk variant appears on a test she bought for fun. Clare learns how genetic testing works, what probability means for her and her daughters, and the ethics of knowing.

Science & evidence in everyday life