Bad Attitudes is a wickedly dark tale of Scottish council housing and murder. This first of two novellas also boasts a missing person, a lethally nosy neighbour, an extra-marital affair, a lusty councillor and a new housing law for tinkers. Who but Agnes Owens could concoct such a delicious brew of dour hilarity and then follow it with an unforgettable party? In Jen's Party, soon-to-be fifteen-year-old Jen immediately regrets agreeing to her crazy Aunt Belle's plan for a birthday party which involves, among other notions, flirting with the town's entire male population. With a perfectly tuned ear for the droll and the deadly, Owens can spin a tale of domestic mayhem that is at once disarmingly tense and movingly human.

'A mini-masterpiece - a delicious, wicked, beautifully observed little black comedy about council house residents that also manages to be a murder mystery and a memorable tale' Independent on Sunday 'An everyday tale of tinkers, teenage runaways, sexually incontinent councillors and lonely old women written in a sinewy, dialogue-driven style' The Times 'Agnes Owens has an appealingly wicked eye for familial love on the dole ... reminiscent of Muriel Spark and Shena Mackay' Sunday Herald 'Agnes Owens is part of a Golden Age in Scottish literature' Guardian

Agnes Owens is the author of the novels Gentleman of the West, Like Birds in the Wilderness, A Working Mother and For the Love of Willie, shortlisted for the 1998 Stakis Prize. She is also the author of the short-story collection People Like That and contributed stories to the collection Lean Tales alongside James Kelman and Alasdair Gray.