Barbara Jaques: 15 books

Sterling Close is the short story of a tiny community and their very particular, and rather unexpected, tastes. From the author of other unexpected short stories, novelist Barbara Jaques.

With a nod to Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected, Baggy is the story of a boy's playful pranks and the price he must pay for his fun.

An unexpected tale of opportunity in the rental market. Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Roald Dahl.

Life is a bus journey. Or is it a lottery, where you select your own numbers or even make a random choice? Whichever, the odds do not change. What does matter, however, is what you do with the ticket. Anita Smith left hers on the bus.

A short story of life. Waiting in a supermarket car park, in a small English town, is a bus decorated for fun. But what sort of party starts at 8am and includes the young the old and strangers?

The age of technology? The ride might be longer than you think.

A short tale of threading lives and private stories where not everything is as it seems.

Two small English cities battle it out, in a short tale of personal rivalry and obsession.

Environmentalist Felix persuades his young granddaughter Bee to accompany him on holiday to Malaysia, where they journey to Pulau Tua, a vast and sacred island some distance off the Malaysian coast. There they witness the kidnapping of 10 year-old Tuan, sole survivor of an indigenous tribe wiped out...

For thirty-two year old stalker, Ricardo Mancini, obsession has become an addictive force, so when he crosses paths with an unhappy but beautiful woman, she instantly fills him with desire. While he relishes her attractive good looks, it is the inner beauty he sees that hooks him. But is it possible...

A short tale of an elitist gardening club driving the horticulturally minded to insane extremes. Nature, nurture or just plain creepy?

In Book One of The Cult of Following trilogy, Englishman, Percy Field, takes his first uncertain steps towards a future no one could have foretold… Misanthrope, Percy Field, is completely at ease amongst his reserved middle England community. However, if he is to rescue his floundering marriage...

After stepping far beyond the warm-beer and soggy-chip comforts of England, Percy Field has finally accepted his lot. While the move to Singapore was everything Percy expected, finding joy in this new place was both inexplicable and unexpected. But life for the disagreeable expat is not destined...

In the final book of The Cult of Following trilogy, the drifting existence of Percy Field is manoeuvred in a firm direction. Slightly puzzled by it all, Percy decides he has nothing to lose by making the most of what is on offer. Astoundingly, in a feat comparable to turning water into wine, Percy’s...