Helen Bailey Books in Order
Browse Helen Bailey books in order, from Electra Brown to Topaz and Felicity Wishes, with short summaries, series guides, and where to start.
Last updated: July 8, 2026
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Publication Order
27 books
My Love Affair with Borthwick Castle
by Helen Bailey
1988
This personal account follows one woman's deep attachment to Borthwick Castle and the struggle of trying to preserve it. It is part memoir, part history, and full of the stubborn romance of saving an old place.
My Sister Tatiana, My Brother Ivan
by Helen Bailey
1988
A nonfiction book about getting beyond Cold War slogans and seeing Soviet people as individuals. Personal stories and everyday details help make a distant society feel more human and easier to understand.
Friendship and Fairyschool
by Helen Bailey
2001
This early Felicity Wishes story introduces Felicity and her fairy friends as they learn, play, and dream about the future. It is a gentle, welcoming start to a magical friendship-filled world.
Dancing Dreams
by Helen Bailey
2002
A trio of Felicity Wishes adventures brings together dancing, school-day muddles, and small magical problems. These are light, friendly stories about confidence, fun, and fairy friendships.
Felicity Wishes Fashion Fiasco
by Helen Bailey
2002
Three short Felicity Wishes stories follow fashion experiments, decorating chaos, and skating trouble. They are breezy fairy adventures about style, friendship, and the small disasters that come with trying something new.
Spooky Sleepover
by Helen Bailey
2002
A sleepover turns deliciously eerie when strange noises start spooking the fairies in the night. It is a cozy little adventure with just enough shivers to keep younger readers turning the pages.
Secrets and Surprises
by Helen Bailey
2003
Felicity is excited about her birthday, until it looks as though none of her friends can come. What follows is a sweet fairy tale about hurt feelings, friendship, and a surprise waiting just out of sight.
Big Book Of Magical Mishaps
by Helen Bailey
2004
This collection gathers Felicity Wishes stories where the best plans go wobbling off course. Magic, friendship, and a few cheerful disasters keep the fairy world busy until everything comes right again.
Topaz in the Limelight
by Helen Bailey
2005
A fortune teller warns Topaz that she will never make it as a star, just as she is chasing a part in a film. When she ends up sidelined and Octavia is close by, her confidence starts to wobble.
Topaz Takes a Chance
by Helen Bailey
2005
After a successful Christmas show, Topaz pushes for her first advertising work and a bigger taste of fame. The path looks exciting, but rival Octavia Quaver is ready to block her at every turn.
Topaz Steals the Show
by Helen Bailey
2007
Topaz is thrilled to win a place at Precious Gems Stage School, but the glamour soon turns into hard work. With new friends, stage fright, family pressures, and rival Octavia to face, she has a lot to prove.
Topaz Takes a Break
by Helen Bailey
2007
Topaz, Sapphire, and Ruby are ready for a holiday after their first year at stage school. Even away from rehearsals, though, competition and drama have a habit of following Topaz wherever she goes.
Life at the Shallow End
by Helen Bailey
2008
Electra's family is falling apart, her dad is moving out, her mum is barely coping, and her little brother is in trouble. Naturally, Electra and her best friends come up with a plan that seems helpful at the time and turns out to be anything but.
Out of My Depth
by Helen Bailey
2008
Electra is getting questions from all sides while trying to sort out the chaos between her separated parents. Reuniting the family sounds like a great idea, until crushes, gossip, and bad timing get in the way.
Topaz on Ice
by Helen Bailey
2008
Back for a second year at Precious Gems Stage School, Topaz throws herself at an Ice Spectacular audition despite barely knowing how to skate. Rivalry, nerves, and a glittering new challenge make this a slippery test of her star dreams.
Topaz Takes the Stage
by Helen Bailey
2008
Topaz lands a role in a new play and thinks her big chance has arrived. Then rehearsals go wrong, the leading lady is fired, and she has to share the spotlight with her rival Octavia Quaver.
Swimming Against the Tide
by Helen Bailey
2009
Everyone around Electra seems wrapped up in romance, and she hates feeling left behind. As her friends pair off and compare notes, she is left juggling envy, appetite, and her usual talent for making things more complicated.
Taking the Plunge
by Helen Bailey
2009
After too much teasing from her friends, Electra decides she will go out with the first boy who asks. It sounds bold in theory, but in practice she may be leaping straight into another social catastrophe.
Falling Hook, Line and Sinker
by Helen Bailey
2010
Electra is madly into a cute, cool bad boy who seems exactly her type. There is just one problem, she already has a boyfriend, and doing the right thing is a lot less fun than flirting with disaster.
Litter to Glitter
by Helen Bailey
2010
A dreadful smell is spreading through Windybottom, and Willow discovers a mountain of rubbish behind it. She must rally her woodland friends, clean up the mess, and save the day before everything is ruined.
Running in Heels
by Helen Bailey
2010
Daisy Davenport has the perfect rich-girl life until her father goes to prison for corruption. Forced into a cramped new home and a rough new school, she has to figure out who she is without the money.
Knowing Me, Knowing You
by Helen Bailey
2011
Channy is already embarrassed by her parents' Abba tribute act when she learns a family secret that changes everything. Her search for answers pulls her toward real danger in this tense, funny YA standalone.
Loving Each Other Safely
by Helen Bailey
2011
This picture-led guide follows Ed and Lauren as they start a relationship and learn about consent, contraception, and sexual health. It is practical, direct, and designed to make sensitive topics easier to understand.
Willow of the Woods
by Helen Bailey
2011
When all the water disappears from Windybottom Wood, Willow knows something is badly wrong. The determined woodsprite sets out to uncover the culprit and save her home from a very nasty surprise.
My Big Fat Gypsy Diary
by Helen Bailey
2012
A younger-reader novel from Helen Bailey, written with the lively energy that runs through her children's fiction. Expect humor, social chaos, and big feelings seen through a sharply observant voice.
When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis
by Helen Bailey
2015
After her husband dies suddenly on holiday, Helen Bailey writes with raw honesty about grief, survival, and slowly rebuilding a life. It is a personal, clear-eyed memoir about loss, love, and finding your footing again.
The Grande Turtle Adventure
by Helen Bailey
2022
Laurie and Tica, two baby leatherback turtles, set out into a huge ocean in this rhyming picture book. Their journey introduces young readers to marine life, migration, and the dangers these endangered turtles face.
Where should I start?
If you want funny teen diary drama: Life at the Shallow End → Out of My Depth → Swimming Against the Tide
If you want the full Electra Brown arc: Life at the Shallow End → Out of My Depth → Swimming Against the Tide → Taking the Plunge → Falling Hook, Line and Sinker
If you want standalone teen fiction: Running in Heels → Knowing Me, Knowing You
If you want younger magical stories: Friendship and Fairyschool → Topaz Steals the Show → Willow of the Woods
If you want her most personal book: When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis
Author bio
Helen Bailey was born on 22 August 1964 and grew up in Ponteland, Northumberland, near Newcastle upon Tyne. She later wrote that school often found her daydreaming out of the window rather than concentrating in class, and that habit of watching people closely stayed with her. Long before she was published, she was already storing away the little embarrassments, crushes, jokes, and social disasters that would make her fiction feel so alive.
As a teenager, she bought herself a copy of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and started sending poems and stories to anyone she could think of. Some of that early work found a home, which gave her a first taste of being in print. It was a scrappy, practical start, the kind built on envelopes, persistence, and a lot of hope.
Before writing became her full public identity, Bailey took a fairly different route. She studied physiology at Thames Polytechnic in London and at one point planned to become a forensic scientist. She later joked that part of the appeal was the thought of being called Dr Bailey and rushing around in a white coat.
Then she changed course.
Instead of a lab, she moved into media and licensing, working with big entertainment brands and campaigns connected to names like Nintendo, Garfield, Rugrats, Snoopy, and Dirty Dancing. That world gave her a sharp eye for trends, image, and the way children and teenagers talk about what matters to them, even when what matters looks silly from the outside. She understood that eyeliner, popularity, and lunch-table politics can feel enormous when you are young.
That understanding runs straight through her best-known fiction. Bailey became especially popular for the Electra Brown books, beginning with Life at the Shallow End and followed by Out of My Depth, Swimming Against the Tide, Taking the Plunge, and Falling Hook, Line and Sinker. Electra is vain, funny, dramatic, and often gloriously self-absorbed, but the books work because Bailey keeps one foot in comedy and the other in real life. Family breakups, friendship wobble, and first relationships all sit underneath the jokes.
She also wrote for younger readers. The Topaz books follow a girl chasing stage-school stardom, while Willow of the Woods brings a lighter, magical feel for children just starting to read longer stories. Bailey also co-wrote books in the Felicity Wishes world, where fairies, friendship, and tiny disasters all share the page. Later she wrote standalones such as Running in Heels and Knowing Me, Knowing You, both of which show the same feel for social awkwardness, big emotions, and girls trying to work out who they are.
In 2011, her husband John Sinfield died while they were on holiday in Barbados. Bailey wrote openly about grief after that, first on her Planet Grief blog and then in her adult memoir When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis. It is a very different book from her children's fiction, but readers responded to the same honesty that shaped her novels.
She spent much of her adult life in London, though Northumberland always remained part of how she saw herself.
Bailey died in 2016, aged 51. Her books are still remembered for being funny without talking down to young readers, and for noticing that even the most dramatic teenage worries usually hide something real underneath.
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