Jo Baker Books in Order (Updated May 9, 2026)

Jo Baker is a British novelist from Lancashire whose work often blends literary fiction with history, memory, class, gender, and the hidden lives behind familiar public narratives.

She is best known for Longbourn, a reimagining of Pride and Prejudice from the servants’ perspective. She has also written novels about family history, Samuel Beckett in wartime France, contemporary literary suspense, and the London Blitz.

Jo Baker’s novels are standalones. There is no ongoing series, no required character order, and no shared fictional timeline that readers need to follow from book to book.

The best reading order is publication order if you want to follow her development as a writer. The best starting point for most readers is Longbourn.

Jo Baker Books in Publication Order

1. Offcomer (2002): Jo Baker’s debut novel follows a young woman in Northern Ireland, using displacement, memory, and family strain to establish many of the emotional concerns that recur in her later work.
2. The Mermaid’s Child (2004): A more fable-like historical novel about a girl whose father claims her mother was a mermaid, sending her into a wide search for origin, belonging, and truth.
3. The Telling (2008): A dual-period novel linking a modern woman restoring an old house with a nineteenth-century story of class, secrecy, and dangerous knowledge.
4. The Undertow (2011): Also published in some listings as The Picture Book, this multigenerational novel follows one family through the twentieth century, with war, inheritance, and silence shaping each generation.
5. Longbourn (2013): A Pride and Prejudice companion novel told from below stairs, shifting the focus from the Bennet family’s marriage plot to the servants whose labor supports it.
6. A Country Road, A Tree (2016): A fictionalized account of Samuel Beckett during the Second World War, centered on exile, resistance, writing, and survival in occupied France.
7. The Body Lies (2019): A contemporary literary suspense novel about a writer, a creative-writing class, and the threat created when fiction, violence, and misogyny begin to overlap.
8. The Midnight News (2023): A Second World War novel set during the Blitz, following a young woman whose private fears and public danger become increasingly difficult to separate.

Best Jo Baker Reading Order

Jo Baker does not need to be read in order, but this route gives new readers the strongest path through her major styles.

1. Longbourn (2013): Start here if you want the clearest entry point and the book most readers know first.
2. The Midnight News (2023): Read next for another historical novel with wartime pressure, intimate fear, and a strong central perspective.
3. A Country Road, A Tree (2016): Continue here if you want Baker’s literary-historical work at its most biographical and wartime-focused.
4. The Body Lies (2019): Read this after the historical novels if you want to see Baker move into contemporary suspense and questions about violence in fiction.
5. The Telling (2008): Add this for a quieter dual-period novel about houses, memory, class, and buried history.
6. The Undertow (2011): Read here for a broader family novel that moves across the twentieth century.
7. The Mermaid’s Child (2004): Save this for when you want Baker’s more mythic and quest-like early work.
8. Offcomer (2002): Read the debut last if you want to look back at the beginning of her career after knowing the later novels.

Jo Baker Novels by Type

Austen-Related Fiction

• Longbourn (2013): A standalone companion to Pride and Prejudice, told from the servants’ point of view rather than from Elizabeth Bennet’s social world.

Reading note: You do not need to read Jo Baker’s earlier novels before Longbourn. Familiarity with Pride and Prejudice helps, but Longbourn is written as its own novel.

Historical and Wartime Fiction

1. The Undertow (2011): A twentieth-century family novel shaped by war, loss, and inherited consequences.
2. A Country Road, A Tree (2016): A literary historical novel about Samuel Beckett’s wartime experience in France.
3. The Midnight News (2023): A Blitz novel about psychological strain, friendship, danger, and wartime uncertainty.

Literary Suspense

• The Body Lies (2019): A modern suspense novel about writing, threat, and the way violence against women can be turned into narrative material.

Early Literary Fiction

1. Offcomer (2002): A debut novel about displacement and personal history.
2. The Mermaid’s Child (2004): A historical, fable-like journey novel about identity and origin.
3. The Telling (2008): A dual-period novel about hidden stories and the lives left inside old houses.

Collections and Short Fiction

1. Kiss and Part (2019): A multi-author short-story collection that includes Jo Baker’s story The Fabric of Things; optional for readers following her novels.
2. The Black Dreams (2021): A Northern Ireland strange-fiction anthology that contains a Jo Baker story; optional and not part of any novel sequence.

Chronological Order

There is no useful in-universe chronological order for Jo Baker’s books.

Each novel stands alone. Some are historical, some are contemporary, and some move across generations, but they do not share characters or a single continuity.

Use publication order for career development:

1. Offcomer (2002): Debut literary novel.
2. The Mermaid’s Child (2004): Early historical and mythic fiction.
3. The Telling (2008): Dual-period literary fiction.
4. The Undertow / The Picture Book (2011): Multigenerational twentieth-century family novel.
5. Longbourn (2013): Austen-related historical companion novel.
6. A Country Road, A Tree (2016): Wartime literary biographical fiction.
7. The Body Lies (2019): Contemporary literary suspense.
8. The Midnight News (2023): Second World War literary fiction.

Title Note: The Undertow and The Picture Book

Some listings show The Undertow and The Picture Book as the same novel under different titles.

For reading-order purposes, treat them as one book. Do not read both expecting a separate sequel or companion novel.

Latest Jo Baker Book

The latest confirmed Jo Baker novel is The Midnight News (2023).

No newer full-length Jo Baker novel after The Midnight News was reliably confirmed during this update.

FAQs

Do Jo Baker books need to be read in order?

No. Jo Baker’s novels are standalones. Publication order is useful if you want to follow her development, but it is not required for continuity.

What Jo Baker book should I read first?

Start with Longbourn. It is her best-known novel and the clearest entry point for many readers, especially those interested in Austen-related fiction.

Is Longbourn part of a series?

No. Longbourn is a standalone novel. It is connected to Pride and Prejudice by setting and perspective, not by being part of a Jo Baker series.

Should I read Pride and Prejudice before Longbourn?

It helps, but it is not strictly required. Readers who know Pride and Prejudice will catch more of the background structure, while new readers can still follow Longbourn as its own story.

Is The Body Lies a thriller?

Yes, but it is best described as literary suspense. It uses thriller elements while also examining writing, gender, violence, and power.

Is A Country Road, A Tree about Samuel Beckett?

Yes. It is a fictionalized novel inspired by Samuel Beckett’s wartime years in France.

Are The Undertow and The Picture Book the same book?

Yes, current bibliography listings commonly treat The Picture Book as an alternate title for The Undertow.

Which Jo Baker books are historical fiction?

The Mermaid’s Child, The Telling, The Undertow, Longbourn, A Country Road, A Tree, and The Midnight News all use historical settings or historical timelines in significant ways.

Conclusion

Jo Baker’s books are simple to organize because they are standalones.

Read Longbourn first for the strongest entry point. Continue with The Midnight News and A Country Road, A Tree if you want historical fiction, or move to The Body Lies if you prefer contemporary literary suspense.