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Pleasant Vices
Pleasant Vices
Nov 4, 2025 1:39 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

A funny, original, stinging-as-a-nettle, soothing-as-a-dockleaf read

—— Observer

A carefully observed, caustic portrait of two opposites - one prickly, one plodding - and their troublesome but enduring friendship

—— New York Times

A pleasure from start to finish

—— Guardian

Every detail...is described with the accuracy of an X-ray and the urgency of poetry

—— Penelope Mortimer , Daily Telegraph

Andric possess the rare gift in a historical novelist of creating a period-piece, full of local colour, and at the same time characters who might have been living today

—— Times Literary Supplement

Just as the bridge on the Drina brought East and West together so your work has acted as a link, combining the culture of your country with other parts of the planet

—— Göran Liljestrand, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences member
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