English Correspondence

The first novel from the hugely acclaimed Janet Davey was longlisted for the Orange prize and widely praised – ‘a superb piece of writing’ (Joanne Harris) and ‘an engrossing novel’ Observer

Striking first novel. Davey writes beautifully

To read this novel is to feel one's life improved, one's faith in the moral force of art secured. Davey's book will last, and carry retrospective weight with her ancestors among the best novelists, both English and French

A book of such unobtrusive artistry and insight

A superb piece of writing - elegant and subtle in a way you don't see very often these days. Janet Davey is a writer of tremendous presence whose remarkable ability to observe characters and their lives results in a truly enthralling story. It's difficult to believe this is a first novel

Delicate, subtle, entirely lacking in brashness-I purred over its sheer intelligence, its quiet wit

Janet Davey is the author of English Correspondence, which was longlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize, First Aid, The Taxi Queue and By Battersea Bridge. She lives in London.

Sylvie is half French and half English. Since the death of her mother, she has written weekly letters to her father in London. When he too dies unexpectedly, she waits for the letter she knows he must have posted before his death. And, as she waits, her carefully ordered and controlled life finally begins to unravel. Brilliantly observed, delightfully witty and beautifully written, English Correspondence condenses all the major questions of adult life – love, marriage, children, and grief – into the time it takes to arrange a funeral and find a missing letter.

First Aid

‘A brilliantly observed study of fragile family relationships and the minutiae of everyday life. A masterpiece’ - Daily Mail

Davey, like Penelope Fitzgerald, manages to convey a great deal with very little... triumphant

Beautifully written and perfectly judged with some unforgettable moments-it's like a depth charge - very understated, very subtle

To read this novel is to feel one's life improved, one's faith in the moral force of art secured

On a weekend in late summer, Jo is fleeing to London with her children when, a few miles into the journey from the Kent coast, her teenage daughter jumps off the train. 
 
Since Jo’s husband left her, she has been caring single-handedly for her three children, working in a junk shop to make ends meet. A new love affair was just beginning to give her life meaning until the man inexplicably lashed out at her. Jo’s instinct was to pack hasty bags and head to her family in London. 
 
As we follow Jo's attempt to cope with the repercussions of her daughter's action we gradually learn what led up to the attack from her lover, and begin to understand how desperately each of them would like to escape the ties that bind and begin afresh.

The Taxi Queue

The third novel from the hugely acclaimed Janet Davey. 
 
‘A touching story of loneliness, sexual confusion and family ties’ - Guardian

Not since Penelope Fitzgerald's pen was stilled has there been so transcendent and workmanlike a novel in English

[A] skillful handling of words. She is able to create intimacy brilliantly...beautifully observed

Subtle and challenging...attempts something radical with the fictional form: it eludes novelistic norms in favour of something more like life

Davey is a deft observer of the inequalities of nature that exist within families

A novel that feels more like real life than any other book you will read this year

With the lightest of touches this beguiling novelist expounds the dilemmas of contemporary living

Janet Davey is the author of English Correspondence, which was longlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize, First Aid and By Battersea Bridge. She lives in London.

Two men meet by chance in the taxi queue outside Paddington station one January night. Richard is in his mid-forties, apparently happily married, with two children. Abe is young, and casually manipulative. The men share a taxi and, on impulse, Richard invites Abe into his home- an action that sends ripples not only through his own life and that of his wife, but also through the fragile existence of Abe's younger sister, Kirsty, who is herself unsure of the best way to settle down...

By Battersea Bridge

A startlingly beautiful novel about the complications of family relationships by highly acclaimed novelist Janet Davey

So deliciously written that it's worth re-reading to savour the images she conjures up...it's a joy to read

We're lucky to have such an intelligent chronicler of our present - and of the dirty, noisy beauty of contemporary London

Easy to read and oddly compelling...a memorable, and very clever, book

Funny and real as well as impressively sympathetic...this perceptive, engaging little novel says a great deal about human vulnerability, resilience and the passivity that too often goes unnoticed.

The book is studded with gem-like observations of this privileged English family, whose preoccupations are 'schooling, property and the form of things'. Davey brilliantly observes the mix of obstinacy and pride - the fortitude - required to survive such a heritage. By Battersea Bridge is itself a kind of verbal still life, with exquisite and revelatory strokes wherever you look

Anita is an immediately recognisable psychological type, the product of a pressurized upbringing… This personality type is realistically portrayed as every detail in the novel, down to the smell of boiling turkey stock in her ageing parents’ Hampshire home.

The glinting briskness of Davey's prose, the acuteness of her observations and the crispness of her wit keep the pages swiftly turning

Davey is a subtle and delicate writer, and this is an excellent study of modern alienation

A subtle and beautifully written book that succeeds at the difficult task of capturing how real life actually feels

Janet Davey was born in 1953. She is the author of English Correspondence, which was longlisted for the 2002 Orange Prize, First Aid and The Taxi Queue. She lives in London.

Anita Mostyn feels the need to take a holiday from her life. As a child, she was dismissed by her parents in favour of her more confident brothers, and as an adult, her choices are disapproved of – the small art gallery she works for, the friends she makes, the men she sees. On a whim, she takes up an offer to scout for holiday properties in Bulgaria, escaping the impending second wedding of her perfect brother. But as Anita navigates these difficult waters, a horrifying episode in her past – the thing she has really been trying to escape – comes back to haunt her.

Janet Davey

Funny, shrewd and desolating- a novel that makes you look and think twice

Ambitious, clever... By the end of this book you feel profoundly disturbed and enlightened

We’re lucky to have such an intelligent chronicler of our present

A well-written, very well-observed and quietly effective portrayal of the tribulations of middle age

‘We’re lucky to have such an intelligent chronicler of our present' Tessa Hadley on Janet Davey 
 
Lorna Parry lives with her three sons, each one lurching into adulthood. Lorna struggles in the claustrophobic loneliness of her home; she’s still angry at her ex-husband, uncomfortable around her father’s new girlfriend and finds it difficult to talk to her sons. Life seems precariously balanced. Then a shocking event occurs at the boys’ school and her world threatens to implode.

Janet Davey

Praise for Another Mother's Son

Funny, shrewd and desolating- a novel that makes you look and think twice

Ambitious, clever... By the end of this book you feel profoundly disturbed and enlightened

Quietly menacing

Funny, shrewd and desolating- a novel that makes you look and think twice

Ambitious, clever... By the end of this book you feel profoundly disturbed and enlightened

Quietly menacing

Funny, shrewd and desolating- a novel that makes you look and think twice

Ambitious, clever... By the end of this book you feel profoundly disturbed and enlightened

Quietly menacing

Books by Janet Davey

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter