Fay Weldon Novels – your guide to the one to choose – as described by their author.
Books are like other people: some you get on with, some you just don’t. No blame attached.
People ask me ‘which one do I start with?’ I ask them to tell me the last book they read that they enjoyed. Then I recommend accordingly. I can’t do that from this website but this profiling scheme might help, in which I have assessed my own books from A down to F) the better to describe them.
Spooky (S); Funny (F); Sharp (SH); Intellectual (I); Literary (Lit);Feminist (Fem);Writer’s Presence (WP) Book Club (BC) Female Understanding (U).
Your comments on my profiling scheme are welcome – contact me. If I don’t reply it isn’t that I haven’t clocked your responses. I do, and take notice.
All books are available through Amazon, some in Kindle, most coming presently in e-form.
FICTION
After the Peace
October 2018
Why will no-one publish my novel?
July 2018
Death of a She Devil
April 2017
Before the War
March 2016
Mischief
February 2015
The Ted Dreams
October 2014
More details
The New Countess
Love and Inheritance Trilogy Book 3
December 2013
Long Live the King
Love and Inheritance Trilogy Book 1
St. Martin’s Press, 2013
Habits of the House
Love and Inheritance Trilogy Book 2
Head of Zeus, 2012
More details
Kehua! – a ghost story
Corvus, 2010
S/a; WP/a, U/b, BC/b, I/c, Lit/b, F/b, Sh/c, Fem/c
More details
Chalcot Crescent – a dystopia
Corvus, 2009
Sh/A; WP/A; Lit/A; I/a; F/B; U /C; BC/C: Fem/C; Sp/D
More details
The Stepmother’s Diary- a wicked stepdaughter
Quercus, 2008
U/a; BC/a; Sh/b; Lit/b; I/b;F/c; Fem/C; Sh/c; WP/d,S/d
The Spa Decameron – a climacteric of short stories
Quercus, 2007
U/a; Sh/b; Lit/b; F/b; Fem/c; I/c; SP/c; BC/c; BC/d; WP/d;
She May Not Leave – villainy of a perfect mother
Fourth Estate, 2005
U/a; BC/a; S/A; F/b; Fem/B; I/c; Lit/c, WP/d. Sp/d
Mantrapped – metafiction
Fourth Estate, 2004
Lit/a; S/a; WP/a; I/a; U/b; BC/c; Fem/c; F/c; Sp/d
The Bulgari Connection- what a scandal – product placement!
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 2001
F/a; Sh/a; BC/b; I/b; U/b; Lit/c; Fem/d; WP/d;
Rhode Island Blues – romance in the senior citizen’s home
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 2000
BC/b;; F/c; Fem/c; Sh/c; I/c; WP/d; U/d; Lit/d; Sp/d
Big Women- birth of a feminist publishing house
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1998
Fem/a; Sh/b; F/b; Lit/c; U/c; BC/c; Sp/d; WP/d;
Worst Fears– a death uncovers mystery
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1996
U/a: Fem/b; Sh.b; Lit/b; F/c; I/c; WP/d, Sp/d;
Splitting – adventures of a multi personality girl
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1995
U/a; Lit/a; Sh/a; I/a; F/b; Sp/b; Fem/b; WP/d;
Affliction – how therapy destroyed a marriage
HarperCollins, 1994
U/a; Fem/a; Sh/a; I/b; Sh/b; Lit/c; So/c; WP/d; F/d;
Life Force – an irresistible man
HarperCollins, 1992
U/a; Fem/b; F/b; Sh/c; WP/c; I/d; Lit/d; Sp/D;
Growing Rich
HarperCollins, 1992
Darcy’s Utopia
HarperCollins, 1990
The Cloning of Joanna May
HarperCollins, 1989
Leader of the Band
Hodder & Stoughton, 1988
The Hearts and Lives of Men
William Heinemann Ltd, 1987
The Heart of the Country
Hutchinson, 1987
The Rules of Life
Illustrated by Amanda Faulkner
Hutchinson, 1987
The Shrapnel Academy
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1986
The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1983
The President’s Child
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1982
Puffball
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1980
Praxis
Simon & Schuster, 1978
Little Sisters
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1977
Remember Me
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1976
Female Friends
William Heinemann Ltd, 1975
Down Among the Women
William Heinemann Ltd, 1971
The Fat Woman’s Joke
MacGibbon & Kee, 1967
And back and back into the past. The older the books are, the more feminist they are. I think this is a comment more on changing times than changing me.
SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
Nothing to Wear and Nowhere to Hide
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 2002
A Hard Time to be a Father
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1998
Wicked Women
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1996
Angel, All Innocence and Other Stories
Bloomsbury, 1995
Moon Over Minneapolis
HarperCollins, 1991
Polaris and Other Stories
Hodder & Stoughton, 1985
Watching Me, Watching You
Hodder & Stoughton, 1981
NON FICTION
What Makes Women Happy
Fourth Estate, 2006
Mantrapped
Fourth Estate, 2004
Auto Da Fay: A Memoir
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 2002
More details
Godless in Eden
Flamingo (HarperCollins), 1999
Fay Weldon’s Wicked Fictions
Edited by Regina Barecca, University Press of New England, 1994
Sacred Cows
Chatto & Windus, 1989
Rebecca West (Lives of Modern Women)
Penguin, 1985
Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen
Michael Joseph Ltd, 1984
Read a review of Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Nobody Likes Me
Illustrated by Claudio Munoz
Bodley Head (Random House), 1997
Party Puddle
Illustrated by Carol Wright
Collins, 1989
Wolf the Mechanical Dog
Illustrated by Pat Leyshun
Collins, 1988
Latest Book
Why Will No-One Publish My Novel?
Death of a She Devil
In The Life and Loves of a She Devil women fought men for power and won. But four decades later the fight continues on a new front…
Ruth Patchett, the original She Devil, is eighty-four and keen to retire. She has worked hard to make the world as she wants it: women triumphant, men submissive. Now she is tired. Her business is done. The mantle of power and influence is up for grabs.
Who can take up the role? Valerie Valeria, hot shot millennial, is ready and eager for power to inherit…
Paperback published 5th October 2017
ORDER ON AMAZON UKBefore the War
Before the War is my last book: it’s about – well, lots of things. Primarily about how looks dictate our destiny, how pretty girls flourish while plain girls don’t, and how it isn’t fair. It’s about how Vivvie – too tall, plain, Aspergery rich girl – manages to subvert her fate and die happy and a saint: but has to fight her beautiful but wicked mother Adela (of Long Live the King!) to get there. It’s about the world of London publishing between the two World Wars. It’s about how international tensions mirror family dysfunction. It’s about how the charismatic and faithless thriller writer Sherwyn Sexton (Vivvie’s husband – she has to buy him) confuses himself with his fictional swashbuckling hero. It’s about how love wins out in the end: just about. I hope it’s funny when it’s not being sad.
Anyway… (I nearly titled the book Anyway but was dissuaded) that’s the book I believe I’ve written. The reader may see something entirely different. Over to you.
The fabulous Julian Clary reads my novel Before the War unabridged / CD or download:
amazon.co.uk/Before-the-War
Mischief
In February 2015 my publishers Head of Zeus brought out out an anthology of my short stories: twenty-one of the total of five times that number that I’ve written. Although most have seen the light elsewhere some have not; the book also includes my new hundred-page novella The Ted Dreams in print form for the first time.
