Helen Bain Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Helen Bain is a published author.

She is an author who attended King’s College London, where she received her PhD in creative writing. She also has MA degrees in creative writing as well as modern and contemporary literature from Birkbeck and the University of London.

Helen was selected for The London Library Emerging Writer’s Programme 2020-2021 as well as The Genesis Foundation Emerging Writers’ Programme 2022-23. In 2024, Helen was the recipient of The People’s Friend Comedy Fiction Prize.

Some early extracts from her first novel The Daffodil Days were shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize for Fiction 2023 and The Biographer’s Club Tony Lothian Prize 2021. Helen is employed at the Financial Times. Before that, she was employed at Vogue and the Guardian. Helen resides in a village in Sussex.

The Daffodil Days is a 2026 book by Helen Bain. This is an incredibly inventive historical novel that follows along with the character of Sylvia Plath as she moves through the last year of her life. It is told through the eyes of the people who were able to know her when she was in the English countryside.

Church bells are ringing in the early sixties in a small town in England. The people are all going about their business and their days while getting brief glimpses of each other. There is the doctor there, who actually knows more about his patients than he would prefer sometimes. There’s also the assistant at the dress shop, who is able to fully comprehend the fact that the ladies who flock there in order to find a new outfit are often hoping they can find a new self as well.

There are also the men, who are busy ringing the church tower bells three times a week as the notes come out and make their way over the rooftops of the town. Through all of these lives, one of the young couples comes into focus. They’re new to town along with their daughter and have made their way out of London in order to live a quieter life at Court Green, a thatched house right besides the church.

There is the life that they wanted to build, one made out of secondhand furniture that has hearts and flowers on it, one with well-cooked suppers for the weekend guests, and with a devotion to the type of work that matters so much to them both. They want it to be one that is both good and happy.

This debut novel shows a very important year in the marriage of one half of one of the most famous couples in literature. Sylvia Plath was known for her writing but here is a portrait of this mysterious author that is shown through the inner lives of a rural community that is caught up in her light, if only just for a moment.

In this story Sylvia is a woman who is capable, with great charisma, who is vulnerable but strong and has a lot of spirit. If you’re a fan of literary or historical fiction, you might just really like this picture into what pulls us together and makes us strong, like love, creativity, and resilience. Check out this book from Helen Bain to read every word and absorb the life of a writer that you may not know that much about! Get a copy of The Daffodil Days today.