‘A deeply pleasurable postwar tale’ Guardian
‘Generous, touching and romantic’ Clare Chambers
‘One of our finest writers of literary entertainment’ Spectator
‘Sometimes books that are this funny are easy to underestimate, but Small Bomb at Dimperley is wiser than a good many ponderously serious tomes. An absolute joy to read’ The Times
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It’s 1945, and Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home.

But ‘home’ is Dimperley, built in the 1500s, vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy and dependent relatives, the latter clinging to a way of life that has gone forever.

And worst of all – following the death of his heroic older brother – Valentine is now Sir Valentine, and is responsible for the whole bloody place. To Valentine, it’s a millstone; to Zena Baxter, who has never really had a home before being evacuated there with her small daughter, it’s a place of wonder and sentiment, somewhere that she can’t bear to leave.

But Zena has been living with a secret, and the end of the war means she has to face a reckoning of her own?

Funny, sharp and touching, Small Bomb at Dimperley is both a love story and a bittersweet portrait of an era of profound loss, and renewal.
____________

More praise for Small Bomb at Dimperley

‘A future classic’ Woman&Home
‘This is Lissa Evans at the peak of her mighty powers’ India Knight
‘Brilliantly written, gloriously funny… a heart-warming read about learning to live again’ Sun
‘Incredibly assured and affecting… the perfect novel to be read in such dark times’ Graham Norton
‘Perfectly pitched, funny tale, sprinkled with peppery observations and speckled with a poignant bitter-sweetness’ Daily Mail

‘What a treat – it brought the whole experience flooding back. A feast for fans of the show or indeed anyone interested in the creative chaos of making television’ Graham Norton

Three decades after it first appeared on screen, Father Ted is still cherished, quoted and endlessly re-watched. Its beloved main characters, unforgettable lines and extraordinary visual jokes have given birth to a thousand gifs and t-shirts and a million catchphrases.

Unforgettable to watch, it was also unforgettable to work on. Lissa Evans, as producer of the second and third series, spent three years hovering anxiously over every moment, from the first glimpse of script to the last revolution of a runaway milk-float round a specially-built plywood roundabout. There was no ‘average Father Ted episode’ – each of them was stuffed with challenges; endless rain, lustful rabbits, clerics crashing through windows, sheep doubles, collapsing crosses and a never-ending stream of eccentric priests – and the work that went into its creation was often nearly as bizarre as what was happening on screen.

Picnic on Craggy Island is a hugely affectionate and anecdotal account of what lay behind some of those moments of comic genius – so pull on your kagoule, spread out your blanket, unwrap the sandwiches (they’re all egg) and enjoy the picnic?

‘A future classic’ Woman&Home
‘Generous, touching and romantic’ Clare Chambers
‘One of our finest writers of literary entertainment’ Spectator
‘Brilliantly written, gloriously funny… a heart-warming read about learning to live again’ Sun
‘Perfectly pitched, funny tale, sprinkled with peppery observations and speckled with a poignant bitter-sweetness’ Daily Mail
__________

It’s 1945, and Corporal Valentine Vere-Thissett, aged 23, is on his way home.

But ‘home’ is Dimperley, built in the 1500s, vast and dilapidated, up to its eaves in debt and half-full of fly-blown taxidermy and dependent relatives, the latter clinging to a way of life that has gone forever.

And worst of all – following the death of his heroic older brother – Valentine is now Sir Valentine, and is responsible for the whole bloody place. To Valentine, it’s a millstone; to Zena Baxter, who has never really had a home before being evacuated there with her small daughter, it’s a place of wonder and sentiment, somewhere that she can’t bear to leave.

But Zena has been living with a secret, and the end of the war means she has to face a reckoning of her own?

Funny, sharp and touching, Small Bomb at Dimperley is both a love story and a bittersweet portrait of an era of profound loss, and renewal.
____________

More praise for Small Bomb at Dimperley

‘Sharp, witty and warm. Press it on friends’ Lev Parikian
‘This is Lissa Evans at the peak of her mighty powers’ India Knight
‘A wonderfully entertaining read’ Red
‘Tightly plotted and extremely moving’ Platinum Magazine
‘A funny and insightful microcosm during World War II’ Irish Independent
‘Incredibly assured and affecting… the perfect novel to be read in such dark times’ Graham Norton
‘Wodehouse meets Barbara Pym? Funny, poignant, perfect’ Daisy Goodwin

For with every candle comes a wish, but some of those wishes actually belong to someone else . . .

SHORTLISTED FOR HWA Crown Awards 2021

It’s late 1944. Hitler’s rockets are slamming down on London with vicious regularity and it’s the coldest winter in living memory. Allied victory is on its way, but it’s bloody well dragging its feet.

In a large house next to Hampstead Heath, Vee Sedge is just about scraping by, with a herd of lodgers to feed, and her young charge Noel ( almost fifteen ) to clothe and educate. When she witnesses a road accident and finds herself in court, the repercussions are both unexpectedly marvellous and potentially disastrous – disastrous because Vee is not actually the person she’s pretending to be, and neither is Noel.

The end of the war won’t just mean peace, but discovery…

With caustic wit and artful storytelling, Lissa Evans elegantly summons a time when the world could finally hope to emerge from the chaos of war.
___

Readers love V for Victory:

‘The characters stay in the memory and heart.’
‘It’s pitch perfect – funny, sad, moving, compelling’
‘Full of warmth, wit and wisdom, an absolute joy’

‘The work of a novelist in her prime’ Daily Telegraph
‘Wise and witty’ Sarah Hughes, Observer
‘Essential . . . Evans is a brilliant storyteller’ Stylist
‘A timely, bittersweet comic novel’ Guardian
‘A thoughtful, funny, companionable novel’ Sunday Times
_______________________________

What do you do next, after you’ve changed the world?

It is 1928. Matilda Simpkin, rooting through a cupboard, comes across a small wooden club – an old possession of hers, unseen for more than a decade.

Mattie is a woman with a thrilling past and a chafingly uneventful present. During the Women’s Suffrage Campaign she was a militant. Jailed five times, she marched, sang, gave speeches, smashed windows and heckled Winston Churchill, and nothing – nothing – since then has had the same depth, the same excitement.

Now in middle age, she is still looking for a fresh mould into which to pour her energies. Giving the wooden club a thoughtful twirl, she is struck by an idea – but what starts as a brilliantly idealistic plan is derailed by a connection with Mattie’s militant past, one which begins to threaten every principle that she stands for.

Old Baggage is a funny and bittersweet portrait of a woman who has never, never given up the fight.

The war’s thrown up all manner of new opportunities but what Vee needs is a cool head and the ability to make a plan. On her own, she’s a disaster. With Noel, she’s a team.

Together they cook up an idea. But there are plenty of other people making money out of the war and some of them are dangerous. Noel may have been moved to safety, but he isn’t actually safe at all . . .

Longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2015