Showing results by author "Jason Ayres" in All Categories

Five complete time travel novels, packed full of comedy, drama, romance, and vivid 1980s culture — all in one unforgettable collection. Linked by a mysterious bracelet that passes from hand to hand, these five stories span 1980 to 1984, each giving one person the chance to relive a single year of their life. Together they create a sweeping journey through the first half of Britain’s most colourful decade.

Robin “Nobby” Clarke is a lifelong gambler who has frittered away his life on cards and horses. With the next race or turn of the card taking priority over all else, he never found time for a career, a wife, or children. Now, it seems too late, until the chance comes to rewind the clock to when he was just 20 years old.

Alone in a pre-internet culture, with funds low, Josh seeks out the one person who can help him survive in the 20th century, his former teacher, Peter, who is now younger than he is. Finding somewhere to live and a means of support until he can return to his own time are soon the least of Josh's worries as a new Time Bubble mystery develops. A local police officer, Rebecca Osakwe, discovers that there is more to a spate of people going missing than meets the eye.

Lauren was not keen on time travel. Her friends had visited the past, future, and even other universes, but she preferred to keep her feet grounded firmly in the present. But now, a crisis has arisen, and she is the only one able to resolve it.

Richard Kent is feeling well and truly fed up. As he approaches middle age, his waistline is expanding, his career options are dwindling, and everything from pop music to television seems like it was so much better in his youth. If that isn't depressing enough, his wife nags him, his kids ignore him, and his boss thinks he's a dinosaur. He's just about ready to give up, but then a truly remarkable encounter with his younger self changes everything.

When his ex-girlfriend, Lauren, starts having recurring nightmares about a strange alternate reality in which she was murdered, Josh becomes interested in proving the existence of other universes. Finding a focal point in the past from which thousands of new universes seem to stem, he travels back in time to find out how they were created. Unfortunately, he ends up causing the very event that he went back to investigate.

A truck crashes on the M40 causing one of the worst motorway pileups for years but the driver is nowhere to be found. Over the next few days more unexplained disappearances occur, leaving investigators puzzled, and the government in a panic. Amid claims of alien abductions and prophecies of a biblical nature, Josh believes there may be another explanation involving time travel. But his theories will have to wait because as the population vanishes at a frightening rate, and society begins to break down, those who remain are plunged into a desperate battle for survival.

Charlie and Josh's interests were the same as most other teenagers: drinking, parties, and girls. That was until the day they discovered the Time Bubble. It starts as a bit of fun, jumping a few seconds into the future. Soon things take a more serious turn as the leaps in time increase in duration. When a teenage girl goes missing, and the police become involved, suspicion falls on Charlie. How can he explain where she is? Will anyone believe him? Set in a small market town in Southern England in the early 21st century, this time travel novel has plenty to delight listeners.

In 1982, Wendy Wood was poised on the brink of stardom. Lead singer with talented local band, Velvet Temptation, she was a rising star of the Oxford music scene. Tipped for fame by the music press, success seemed inevitable. But conflict within the band, a series of betrayals and infidelities, and an unwelcome run of bad luck all played a part in shattering her dreams.

As the 2020s dawn, Keith Diamond, the self-styled ‘Diamond Geezer’, works as a shock jock presenter at controversial radio station, ChatFM. When the station comes under new management, Keith finds himself surplus to requirements. His employment prospects look bleak until a stranger gives him a bracelet that catapults him forty years back in time to when he was a young journalist. Soaking up the culture, Keith immerses himself in the music scene, going to see legendary bands like The Clash, Blondie, and The Specials, but soon there are more important tasks at hand.

When Henry Jones woke up on holiday in Fuerteventura, he didn’t expect to get burnt, drowned, or shot. Nor did he expect to be eaten by a mythical sea monster. Making friends with Alice, the girl in the next apartment, the two of them try to piece together their patchy memories to establish how they ended up on the island. Why have they been thrown back decades in time to their younger bodies? Why is every day the same, yet different? And why are they the only two people who can see what is going on?

At 59, Jenna Rae is one of the last born-and-bred residents of Pencarven, a small settlement on Cornwall’s rugged north coast. Forty years ago, it was a traditional fishing village, cherished by locals and holidaymakers alike. But since then, it’s been transformed into an exclusive retreat for the wealthy, stripping away everything Jenna once held dear. Offered the chance to return to 1983, Jenna sees an opportunity to rewrite the future – and fight for Pencarven’s heritage.

Stranded in the future, in a place where his outdated currency is worthless, things go from bad to worse for Dan very quickly. Before long, he finds himself incarcerated in a secure psychiatric unit, and his hopes of ever returning to the past looking bleak. Elsewhere, Josh has unlocked the secrets of the time bubbles and can now freely travel in time. He returns to the scene of past encounters, as well as travelling to the future to join Peter on his adventures through time.

Fancy a trip back in time to 1981? Then join Nick Taylor as he gets the opportunity of a lifetime to relive a whole year of his life. 1981 wasn't a year Nick remembered fondly. His mother was killed in a plane crash, his father ran off with the babysitter, and he was sent to possibly the most horrible school in the world. 2020 ends on a similar note when that babysitter, now his stepmother, can't be bothered to tell him his father is dying until it is too late and then promptly disinherits him.

Time travel meets apocalyptic weather event in this eagerly awaited sequel to The Time Bubble! In 2029, Earth is facing a major climate catastrophe. An asteroid strike blankets the globe in dust and ash, blocking out the sunlight. Soon, temperatures begin to fall. As weather conditions worsen, the residents of a small market town in Southern England must make a decision - flee south or wait for the worst to pass. With power supplies failing and food scarce, survival is at stake as those with darker motives seek to take advantage of the situation.

In the final thrilling installment of The Time Bubble series, the team faces their greatest peril yet. It’s been over half a century since teenagers Josh and Charlie first discovered the time portal in the tunnel that launched a lifetime of adventures. Now retired, and living in his new country pad with his wife, Alice, Josh is forced to face the reality of the impending mortality of the ageing team, as the first of them passes on, unexpectedly. With his time travel and mind-transference technology, he stresses to the surviving members of the team that none of them needs to die.

Thomas Scott has lived his life twice before. At night, he dreams about his wife-to-be and resolves to preserve the timeline, so they can meet in the right place at the right time. Ben Lewis was a middle-aged failure in 2020 before he was cast back into his 18-year-old body. Given a second chance, he intends to exploit it for his own selfish ends. When the two meet in Oxford in 1988, they soon clash.

At an advanced academic institute in Canberra, Josh and Alice meet scientists Henry and Vanessa Jones who are experimenting with mind transference. The four of them combine their technology to try and project their minds back through time into their younger bodies, thus achieving immortality. After some initial success, unforeseen implications become apparent.

Kay's life is in a mess. Now she's been given the chance to go back and relive six days of her life again. Can she use them wisely to turn things around? At 18, she had it all - brains, beauty, and plans for a glittering career. By 43, she is barely scraping a living and renting a grotty flat above a chip shop. Traded in by her husband for a younger model, she spends her life seeking solace in vodka and one night stands. With her new found ability to time travel Kay makes good use of her trips back in time.

The Time Bubble is the only podcast where the guests get to travel in time! If you could live any three days of your life over again, which would you choose? If you could be anyone else for a day, past or present, who would it be? And if you could go anywhere in space and time, where would you go?