Novels
- Just for the Summer (1994)
- Pleasant Vices (1995)
- Seven for a Secret (1996)
- Muddy Waters (1997)
- Every Good Girl (1998)
- The Right Thing (1999)
- Excess Baggage (2000)
- No Place for a Man (2001)
- Unchained Melanie (2002)
- Away from It All (2003)
- Size Matters (2004)
- All Inclusive (2005)
- Blowing It (2006)
- Laying the Ghost (2007)
- Other People’s Husbands (2008)
- The Look of Love (2011)
- I Should Be So Lucky (2012)
- In the Summertime (2013)
- It Must Have Been the Mistletoe (2014)
- A Merry Mistletoe Wedding (2015)
Picture Books
- When One Cat Woke Up: A Cat Counting Book (1990)
Novels Book Covers
Picture Books Book Covers
Judy Astley Books Overview
Pleasant Vices
The residents of the Close were much concerned with crime preventing it, that is. With all those out of work teenagers on the nearby council estate hanging around, stealing, joy riding and goodness knows what else, it was just as well that they were setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme. Not that the inhabitants of the Close did not have their own little activities, of course, but these were hardly the same thing. If Jenny and Alan’s daughter was caught traveling on the subway without a ticket, and their son was doing a little experimenting with certain substances, and Laura didn’t see the need to declare her earnings from hiring out her house to a film crew, and Jenny drove home only just over the legal limit well, these were quite different matters, not to be compared with what went on in the Estate. And then there was Jenny’s discovery, when she advertised flute lessons, that she could work up quite a nice little scheme in a rather unexpected way…
As the leafy London street resounded to the efforts of its citizens to keep crime at bay, Jenny realized that it was her marriage, rather than her property, that needed watching.
Seven for a Secret
At 16, Heather eloped with a man 10 years her senior, but the marriage lasted only five weeks. Now middle aged and re married with teenage children, Heather is shocked when her ex husband re enters her life. From the author of ‘Pleasant Vices’ and ‘Just for the Summer’.
Every Good Girl
After 20 years of marriage, Nina has gotten rid of serial philanderer Joe and is happy coping alone with their two daughters. But then some disturbing elements begin to appear in her new, carefree life including the flasher on the common and Joe’s revelation that his girlfriend wants a baby.
Excess Baggage
A family holiday was the last thing Lucy was expecting to have. But as a penniless house painter with an expired lease on her flat and a 12 year old daughter, she could hardly turn down her parents’ offer to take them on a once in a lifetime trip to the Caribbean.
No Place for a Man
Wife, mother, and journalist Jess finds her usually cheery muddle of family life turned upside down when her husband Matt is unexpectedly made redundant. For instead of looking upon it as the disaster it is, he sees it as the perfect opportunity to indulge in some kind of second adolescence.
Unchained Melanie
Melanie finds herself single again after years of being one half of a couple. Her friends predict loneliness, frustration, and disaster. But Melanie is overwhelmingly excited to be able to do her own thing she plans a program of behaving badly, after a lifetime of behaving properly.
Away from It All
Alice lives with her second husband in a leafy London suburb. But when her Bohemian mother falls ill, Alice has to go to Cornwall to look after her, and she begins to wonder if she has made the right life choices.
Size Matters
Although Jay is happy, she had always envied her cousin Delphine; her well organized life and size ten figure. Then Delphine reappears with her third husband. Perhaps Delphine is the envious one.
All Inclusive
Do the friendships you make on holiday have anything to do with real life? It might be sensible to hope that they don’t. For the last few years, Beth and Ned have gone to the same Caribbean island to the same luxury spa hotel. There they meet the same crowd, and take up where they left off last time. Real life, home life, family life, are all safely left behind. Except this year. This year, home problems have somehow tagged along for the ride. Ned has been playing away a bit of a drunken fling, that’s all, nothing to worry about, Beth thinks. But although they have put it all behind them, what Beth doesn’t know is that Ned’s fling was with the female half of one of the couples they are holidaying with. To make matters worse, Beth has insisted on bringing along their sixteen year old daughter Delilah, who’s been ill and needs rest and sunshine. Not so ill, however, that she can’t look around for some entertainment…
Blowing It
Sorrel is about to go off on her Gap Year. She wants a home to come home to. Ilex, her brother, is trying to upgrade his flat and marry his smart girlfriend Manda. He’d like some immediate equity. Clover, the elder sister, has plans that involve a bijou second home in France. And she wants it now. If only their parents would be sensible. If only they would sell their large, rather grand but somewhat dilapidated home and hand over their inheritance. But parents aren’t always as sensible as their children. They are planning on blowing the lot.
Laying the Ghost
When Nell was a student, she and Patrick were a serious item. They were inseparable, and she really thought he was The One. But then Alex came along the safer, more restful option and thanks to her over controlling mother, she opted for him instead. But now, Alex has left her to live in New York with a younger, blonder woman. Escaping to the Caribbean for a recuperative holiday, she is mugged at the airport and her bag is stolen. It’s crisis time and she makes two decisions: First she will take lessons in self defense. Second she will try and find Patrick again. Is she trying to put the past behind her…
or setting out to ruin her future?
Other People’s Husbands
Sara’s mother told her that she shouldn t marry Conrad, that the 25 year age gap between them would be their downfall. Conrad, a famous painter, has decided that it would be good to die before he gets seriously old, and so spends his time sorting out his chaotic life. Meanwhile Sara when not teaching art at a local college finds that she has plenty of male company in the form of Other People’s Husbands, all of whom are just good friends to her. But there s one man that she somehow never gets around to mentioning to Conrad, and suddenly her little secret begins to impact the rest of her life.
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