I've found that hostas do OK in the shade

Heucheras are good as they have coloured leaves so you get colour all season

there are lots of shade plants. some flower too. I have all of these in quite dry shade under a beech tree.
ferns, astrantia, ajuga, vinca, tellima, helebores, some primulas, japanese anenomes [lovely flowers in late summer] pulmonaria[in flower now] lily of the valley. lots of spring bulbs too.

Epimedium, erithronium, London Pride, Liriope, hellebore, some perennial geraniums but not all.

Hi ev1,

Thankyou so much for your wonderful ideas, as you can probley guessed I am a new trying{very trying} old ,gardener.So have know idea what I am doing Ha Ha,but with your help, seeyou at the RHS next year( in my dreams)

Thankyou once again
Pamela

I find that using the RHS plant selector is an easy way of finding shade loving plants. http://apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/

If you just search on full shade alone there is a choice of 344 plants so recommend you also add some other filters such as colour, size etc. Happy plant hunting! Julie