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Pleasant Vices
Pleasant Vices
May 15, 2025 4:56 PM

Author:Judy Astley

Pleasant Vices

Bestselling author Judy Astley hits the funnybone of contemporary life yet again in this delicious comedy, perfect for fans of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan, Lucy Diamond and Milly Johnson

'Fast and fun' -- Woman & Home

'It sparkles with Astley's wry wit' -- Peterborough Evening Telegraph

'Loved reading this book' -- ***** Reader review

'Enjoyed this from beginning to end' -- ***** Reader review

'This is my happy book and I loved it so much I've read it twice' -- ***** Reader review

'Very funny' -- ***** Reader review

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EVERYONE HAS THEIR GUILTY PLEASURES...

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 Paul Mathieson was 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 travelling on the underground 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 earner in a rather unexpected way...

As the leafy London street resounded to the efforts of its citizens to keep crime at bay, Jenny realised that it was her marriage, rather than her property, that needed watching.

Reviews

This deliciously funny novel had me laughing out loud

—— Woman and Home

Palahniuk starts with a throwaway thought - "what if words could hurt?" - and stretches it until it snaps

—— Arena

A black comic cauldron bubbling with contagious ideas

—— Time Out

Mr. Palahniuk further refines his ability to create parables that are as substantial as they are off-the-wall

—— New York Times

This is vintage Palahniuk: weird, creepy, twisted, upsetting, and ultimately a great read

—— Library Journal

Not least among Mervyn Peake's virtues was his ability to be serious while involved in grotesque humour, and to be idiosyncratic while being completely professional. And that drawing was the essential of all he did

—— Quentin Blake

A wonderful story, a saga of somewhere strange that beats Tolkien into a cocked hat. Superb language and extraordinary imagination

—— Ranulph Fiennes

'The Drowning Girl' was inspired by Peake... Fushia was my dream. The idea of the infinite, of the unreal, of the innocence dying

—— Robert Smith, The Cure

Gripping debut

—— Glamour

I just finished the most fantastic gripping book, the Mistress’s Revenge by Tamar Cohen. I had to keep going to bed early to read it, it’s amazing!

—— Lisa Jewell

Joseph Conrad said that fiction is primarily a visual art; he would have loved Zachary Lazar's Sway for the thousand indelible visual details of a startling originality - and for Lazar's ability to shine a light into the contemporary heart of darkness

—— Edmund White

A hilarious and compelling read

—— Good Housekeeping
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