Hiding Behind The Couch is a multi-part series of stories surrounding a single group of nine friends that takes place over the course of many years.

While storylines are intermingling, the focus of the story and the point of view frequently change.

It is best thought of as a literary soap opera, with seasons and special episodes – some are 'character specials', some are 'festive specials'.

All stories conclude, but there will be overarching plots that continue from one instalment to the next.

The inspiration for the characters, events and settings is the real world, but all characters, events and locations are entirely fictional.

Gray Fisher

The Gray Fisher trilogy is a stand-alone spin-off featuring two secondary characters from the main series, with some cameo appearances from Josh (the pivotal character in Hiding Behind The Couch).

Front of House

Front of House is an offshoot of the main series featuring the next generation of characters - Krissi (Shaunna's daughter), Jay and their peer group.

•  Find out more about the stories
•  How to read the series

Setting

Location

The series is primarily set in a fictional semi-rural town in the north-west of England – essentially an amalgamation of the real towns of Southport and Ormskirk – located on the coast and surrounded by agricultural land, with a number of outlying villages of varying sizes.

The Gray Fisher trilogy is set in and around (a fictional representation of) London.

Housing

Within the town, there are areas of older Victorian houses, newer council housing and new-build exclusive housing, as well as the traditional mix of post-war semi-detached houses and apartment buildings. On the outskirts of the town, there are a number of vast Victorian / Edwardian detached properties with extensive grounds.

Retail and Leisure

The retail area of the town centre has a shopping mall and traditional department store, as well as a number of restaurants, including fast-food outlets with 24-hour drive-thru facilities. The Pizza Place – a (fictional) national chain of pizza restaurants with HQ in Birmingham – has a restaurant in the town.

There is the usual mix of traditional and new pubs in the town, as well as a low-key bar with permanent 'open mic' for live jazz music.

There is an old cinema in the town and several parks, as well as nearby woodlands and outlying smaller villages. The town is within commuting distance of Liverpool and Manchester and a large out-of-town shopping centre; a theme park is a trainride away.

Services

The town has a hospice and hospital, and a number of larger businesses are based there. For many years, Campion Holdings PLC was the most prominent local business, located in a large multistorey office block on the outskirts of the town centre.

There are two primary schools (Parkside County Primary School and St. Mark's C of E Primary School) and a high school (Moorcroft High School) in the area of the town where the characters of the series grew up. The town also has a college of further education and a university.

There are several churches and other places of worship, including St. Mark's C of E, Our Lady's (The Church of Our Lady and St. Joseph) RC, Methodist, LDS, spiritualist churches, Kingdom Hall and a synagogue.

Interactive Map

This interactive map shows some of the real-world locations that inspired locations in the series (I like to think of them as the places where our reality converges with the reality of The Circle).

You can access the map using this link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zCeM6Pw9_JLA.kza83xNxnbqg&usp=sharing

Or (hopefully) the map in the iframe below works – click the little square frame top-right to go full-screen.

How to Read

Hiding Behind The Couch has many instalments. Below are some suggested ways to read the series.

I've also put together a downloadable checklist so, whichever order you prefer to read and whenever you begin, you can keep track of which stories you've read.

Download HBTC Reading Checklist:

PDF   Doc

Purchase/download links for all available instalments can be found at: https://www.beatentrackpublishing.com/?n1=publications&n7=13

Major Instalments Only

For those readers who aren't (yet) interested in side stories, the main books in the series are the 'seasons' (listed below). These may contain references to events from the minor instalments, but these are not crucial to the plots for each season.

The seasons are:

1. Hiding Behind The Couch
2. No Time Like The Present
3. The Harder They Fall
4. In The Stars I
5. In The Stars II
6. Two by Two
7. Reunions
8. Elementary (in progress)

Major Instalments + Spin-Offs

For readers who want to bite off a little more of the series, there are two spin-off mini-series as well as several stand-alone novels. These are listed below and can be read as series in their own right.

Gray Fisher Trilogy

(Also available as a box set via Kindle Unlimited.)

1. The WAG and The Scoundrel
2. Tabula Rasa
3. Distractions

Front of House

1. Goth of Christmas Past
2. Scene But Not Herd (in progress)

Front of House is 'the next generation' (in their twenties when the main characters of HBTC are in their forties).

Full Series in Chronological (Series Timeline) Order

Note: As the series is ongoing and is not always written chronologically, new releases may appear earlier in this list.

Full Series in Release Date Order

1. Hiding Behind The Couch (Season One) - July 2012
2. No Time Like The Present (Season Two) - November 2012
3. Beginnings (Novella) - May 2013
4. The Harder They Fall (Season Three) - June 2013
5. First Christmas (Novella) - December 2013
6. In The Stars Part I: Capricorn–Gemini (Season Four) - January 2014
7. Breaking Waves (Novella) - June 2014
8. In The Stars Part II: Cancer–Sagittarius (Season Five) - June 2014
9. Crying in the Rain (Novel) - November 2014
10. A Midnight Clear (Novella – also in Boughs of Evergreen anthology) - December 2014
11. Red Hot Christmas (Novella) - December 2014
12. Ruminations (Novel) - February 2015
13. Two By Two (Season Six) - March 2015
14. Hiding Out (Novella – CHO Crossover) - March 2015
15. Breakfast at Cordelia’s Aquarium (Short Story) - April 2015
16. Chain of Secrets (Novella – also in Love Unlocked anthology) - February 2016
17. Those Jeffries Boys (Novel) - May 2016
18. The WAG and The Scoundrel (Gray Fisher #1) - September 2016
19. Class-A (Short Story – also in Take a Chance anthology) - December 2016
20. Reunions (Season Seven) - April 2017
21. To Be Sure (Novella – also in Never Too Late anthology) - December 2017
22. What A Scorcher! (Flash Fiction) - May 2018
23. Tabula Rasa (Gray Fisher #2) - June 2018
24. Goth of Christmas Past (Front of House #1) - October 2018
25. The Lost Mitten (see ‘Children’s Stories’) - December 2018
26. The Advent of Reason (Novella) - December 2018
27. Highlights ~ co-written with A.M. Leibowitz (Short Story) - January 2019
28. Not My Christmas (Novella) - December 2019
29. Distractions (Gray Fisher #3) - April 2020
30. Perfect Tenor (Novella) - December 2021
31. Reverberations (Novel) - December 2022

Characters

Note: some of these characters, by virtue of their listing here, may spoil stories if you are still reading earlier in the series.

Central Characters

The central characters of the series are The Circle, who come together as a close-knit friendship group during the latter years of their high school education.

The Circle
Joshua Sandison (Josh)
Eleanor Davenport (Ellie)
George Morley
Daniel Jeffries (Dan)
Andrew Jeffries (Andy)
Jessica Lambert (Jess)
Shaunna Hennessy
Kristian Johansson (Kris)
Adele Reeves

Extended Circle
Sean Tierney
Sophie Spyris
Adrian Simmons (Ade)
Charlotte Davenport (Charlie)

•  More About the Characters

As children, the friends attended different primary schools, but all ended up at the same local high school.

Josh, George, Dan, Andy, Shaunna and Adele were all pupils at St. Mark's C of E Primary School; Jess and Eleanor both attended Parkside Primary School; Kris attended Harwood, a private prep school. Whilst they all end up in the same school year eventually, Josh is a year younger than the others, and Andy is a year older. Josh is moved up a year right at the start of his education, as he is a 'gifted child'. Andy fails his A Levels in sixth form and drops back a year to join the others.

Other Significant Characters:

(in no particular order)
Krissi Johansson
Oliver Brown
Toby Brown
Little Shaunna (Shu) Jeffries
Robbie Jeffries
Dylan Robert Spyris-Tierney
Libby Williams
James Brown
Alice Friar
Jason Meyer
Carl Watkinson (Wotto)
Iris Morley (George's mum)
Pauline (Iris's friend)
Henry Hartley (Aitch)
Rob Simpson-Stone
Michael Jeffries (Mike)
Barbara Evans (Andy, Dan and Mike's mum)
Saorla Tierney (Sean's mum)
Aileen Cullen (Sean's 'Aunty Aileen')
Finn Tierney (Sean's brother)
Cordelia Kinkade
Vincent Asher
Graham Farrar
Siobhan Hennessy (Shaunna's mum)
Jim Hennessy (Shaunna's dad)
Simon Henderson
Gabby Bowes
Imogen (Genie) Rowan
Phee (Phoenix) Rowan
Lee (Jono) Johnson
Xander Etherington-Bowes
Michelle (Adele's mum)
Sally-Anne Reeves (Adele's stepmum)
Hadyn O'Farrell
Stu Drake (Jay's colleague)
Byron Walker

The Davenports:
Marie and Paddy (Mum and Dad)
Their children (in age order) + spouses -> granchildren:
Eleanor + James -> Oliver, Toby
Ben + Jo -> Louise, Amy
Charlie
Luke + Kaz -> Kamesh, Kali, Kohl
Tilly + Craig -> Ashleigh, Benjamin
Teddy
Pete

Gray Fisher Series Characters:

Gray Fisher
Will Richards
Rob Simpson-Stone
Naomi Silvestri/Aaron Tanner
Dom Hooper
Dee Knight
Brian Macintyre (Tie)
Lucas Simpson-Stone
Zoë Clifton
Dom Hooper
Martina Hedley
Freddie Berringer

Front of House Characters:

Krissi Johansson
Jay Meyer
Hadyn O'Farrell
Carl (Wotto) Watkinson
Stu Drake
Amy Jones
Kaz McBride
Ev Uzun
Bridget McBride (Kaz's wife)
Laura, Priya, Niall and Erin (Milky's staff)

Genres (in progress)

The series as a whole is contemporary, realist fiction and features diverse characters (including LGBT+). As such, the characters and the situations they encounter are the everyday, real-life situations we all deal with - births, deaths, marriages, sickness, romance, crime, family feuds, and so on. Thus, the series crosses genres; an indication of the genres of each instalment is given below.

• Beginnings - Adult Fiction / Childhood Trauma
• Ruminations - Romance / Coming of Age
• Class-A - Romance / Coming of Age
• Hiding Behind The Couch (Season One) - Family and Relationships
• No Time Like The Present (Season Two) - Murder Mystery
• The Harder They Fall (Season Three) - Family and Relationships
• Crying in the Rain - Romance
• First Christmas - Christmas Romance
• In The Stars Part I (Season Four) - Family and Relationships / Romance
• Breaking Waves - Honeymoon Romance
• In The Stars Part II (Season Five) - Family and Relationships / Romance
• Chain of Secrets - Romance
• A Midnight Clear - Christmas / Family and Relationships
• Red Hot Christmas - Christmas Romance
• Two By Two (Season Six) - Crime Mystery / Family and Relationships
• Hiding Out - Romance
• Those Jeffries Boys - Romance / Family and Relationships
• The Wag and The Scoundrel (Gray Fisher #1) - Crime Mystery / Romance
• Perfect Tenor - Romance / Holidays (Christmas)
• Reunions (Season Seven) - Crime Mystery
• Tabula Rasa (Gray Fisher #2) - Crime Mystery / Romance
• Breakfast at Cordelia's Aquarium - Flash Fiction / Fourth Wall
• Reverberations - Friendship / Supernatural
• To Be Sure - Family and Relationships / Romance / Friendship
• What A Scorcher! - Flash Fiction / Friendship
• Goth of Christmas Past (Front of House #1) - New Adult / Family and Relationships
• The Lost Mitten - Children's fiction (illustrated)
• The Advent of Reason - Murder Mystery (Cosy) / Holidays (Christmas)
• Highlights - Friendship / Slice of Life
• Not My Christmas - Romance / Holidays (Christmas)
• Distractions (Gray Fisher #3) - Crime Mystery / Romance
• Scene But Not Herd (Front of House #2 - in progress) - New Adult / Family and Relationships