Bernard Jones Diaries Books in Order

The Bernard Jones diaries follow a retired civil servant who has discovered that investing looks easier in the newspapers than it feels in real life. Originally appearing as humorous columns, the pieces were collected and expanded into books such as Funny Money, Bernard Jones and the Temple of Mammon and Dunces with Wolves.

Bernard narrates in the first person, recording his attempts to grow a modest nest egg through the stock market. He is dutiful and well meaning, but also stubborn, anxious and easily swayed. At the Ring o' Bells pub he chairs the Hell's Bells share club, where talk of price earnings ratios mostly gives way to beer, pork scratchings and admiring the bar staff.

At home, life is ruled by his formidable wife Eunice. She has a talent for turning any new fad into a shopping opportunity, and her confidence often outpaces Bernard's shaky returns. Their exchanges over money, diets, health and his beloved railway modelling give the books much of their comedy, even as his pension and savings rise and fall.

The diaries are steeped in the real financial history of the early twenty first century. Bernard frets over losses in names like Jarvis and Railtrack, wonders what happened to his with profits policy, and watches as banks, house builders and retailers unravel during the credit crunch. Fans of the series recognise the sting of Northern Rock, Equitable Life and other very human disasters.

Family is never far away from the balance sheet. Bernard's son Brian is a schoolteacher with strong opinions, his daughter Jemima is well meaning but scatty, and his grandson Digby, nicknamed the Antichrist, seems born to test every adult's patience. Hovering over them all is his elderly mother Dot, whose eventual inheritance could transform or break the family's finances.

What makes the Bernard Jones books stand out is the mix of financial detail and everyday life. You do not need to know much about investing to enjoy them, because the real story lies in the gap between expert advice and what ordinary savers actually do when markets move.

Taken together, the diaries offer a dry, affectionate portrait of small investors trying to survive booms and busts, stubborn banks and impossible relatives, armed with nothing more than a newspaper, a calculator and a sense of humour.