Heuchera would be an excellent choice. they're evergreen,like some shade,come in a wide variety of foliage colours and flower in spring

Epimedium, available in evergreen or 'deciduous' varieties although they both give full cover all year round in my garden.
Only maintenance required is to shear or mow down to the ground at the end of February, to let the dainty flowers be admired. If you don't do this, they will still be fine!
Great at suppressing weeds, and you can underplant with daffs, camassias etc if you're careful about the spring prune.

Do check you get an evergreen one though. They have lovely shiny leaves too. They are less pretty than heucheras but are less prone to attack by vine weevils.

There are also some evergreen perennial hardy geraniums but most disappear in winter so be careful.

Or you could go for some low evergreen variegated shrubs like Euonymus fortunii, easily kept to size if they eventually get a bit bigger than you want. One or two of the Emerald 'n Gold variety would lighten up a corner of epimediums and be bright all the year round

Some of the cottoneasters would be nice....C 'Queen of carpets' is very nice

" There are also some evergreen perennial hardy geraniums but most disappear in winter so be careful"

I've never seen any like that Steragram. I have perhaps 20 varieties in my own and my customers gardens and they're all fully evergreen . All they require is a good hard haircut after flowering in spring and most flower again again 3-4 weeks later. I then give them a second hard haircut in early September and they'll put on new growth that stays evergreen all winter ready to flower again next spring.

My only criticism of some hardy geraniums is they can be a bit invasive. Not all are though .

They're pretty slug resistant too and tough as old boots

That's a big surprise Anchorman. I have three that are fully evergreen and the rest go underground. Can't tell you what most of them are as I'm a hopeless label loser.
Does your Rozanne stay evergreen?

Mine certainly doesn't! I have some that do, and some that don't. I'd say Geranium nodosum would fit the bill for Maglincan. Steer clear of G. macrorrhizum though - it is evergreen, and grows in shade, but it spreads a lot - too much, sometimes!

I googled G. macrorrhizum and found this site http://www.rhs.org.uk/getattachment/9528ad24-c06f-4716-8039-c542f2303e9e/Hardy-Geraniums---Stage-3.aspx
It is full of photographs of lots of hardy geraniums which the RHS tested and the results of those tests. You might like to look at it.

None of my geraniums stay evergreen over winter, even in the milds of Hampshire. Now I'm feeling put out!

Not sure about Rozanne Steragram as, like you, I have a bad habit of losing labels so I don't know which it is... assuming I've got it!

I do have a very light soil. I wonder if that makes a difference

No, 'Rozanne' is a herbaceous one...

My Rozanne is described on the label as semi evergreen requiring a sunny well drained site.

Mine isn't even semi evergreen, but it isn't in a particularly well drained place. It didn't do very well this year, got off to a very late start. Maybe it should be dug up and some grit added to the planting hole?
Anchorman, its a real beauty, very large deep purplish flowers and throws out long stems like Brookside.

Campanula portenschlagiana (also still sometimes sold as Campanula muralis). This variety gets about 4 inches high, makes a nice evergeen cushion which spreads, and has bell shaped purple flowers in summer. If the area's not too dry, Ajuga reptans - there are 3 or 4 varieties with different coloured variegation on the leaves.

You did not mention how big the area is that you want to cover. Knowing that would be a big help.

I forgot to mention Lamium maculatum - - White Nancy or Beacon Silver. One flowers white, the other lilacy pink.

That's a good idea - needs practically no maintenance at all. Mine still has one or two flowers left even now. Would look nice with a few of the smaller ferns in amongst if you were willing to remove the dead fronds in winter.

Scotsgran - Area is a 3m x 4m x 5m right angled triange in the corner of the garden (so sides 3m and 4m are along fences). Hypotenuse (5m) is a curve rather than a straight line. Need to put something that will grow to about 6 feet tall at the back - then getting shorter as you get nearer to the long edge. Grass around most of it, some paving along about 1/2 m of one side. Area tends to get dry as overhung by neighbours hawthorn bush (trouble with neighbours - they are the adjacent city's council, Southampton). Next to the hawthorn is large oak tree that does nothing much for our garden either. Soil is very stoney. We are in Hampshire.

Dry shade then - have a look at Ruscus and Sarcococca varieties for the taller one/s - if you want something taller than these and you don't mind deciduous, Ribes sanguinam tolerates these conditions fairly well. Symphoricaripos might be mentioned, but I'd not recommend it - its an invasive beast. Buxus varieties are worth considering too. Best ground cover would be Lamium (as previously mentioned) - it does well in dry shade too, as does Saxifraga umbrosa. Any shrubs you choose will need watering during dry spells for the first year or so.

Maglincan if you click on S inthe A-Z at the foot of this page, then on shade plants and scroll down till you find an excellent list of plants for shade by Bernard. He wrote it in April 2010.

You could try a mahonia Charity at the back. It is in flower now and is evergreen and will grow to 6 feet eventually.(At a rough guess about 10 or more inches a year) Its not ground cover but would make a good background. Possibly better under the hawthorn than the oak though! You are entitled to remove any overhanging branches if you want to, though the law says you should return them to the tree's owner!

Thanks - re cutting down overhanging branches: as the tree is an old oak with a TPO I doubt if we could get away with taking off overhanging branches (though we have had the odd 'accident' with the long pruners). Good idea for the hawthorn though. Re returning prunings to the owners: we already return (most of) the leaves that their tree deposits in our garden as otherwise we have to pay our local authority to take them away (no, we don't make compost - it's a very small garden).