The Long and the Short of It

The Chronicles of St. Mary's

By: Jodi Taylor

Narrated by: Zara Ramm

Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Follow the disaster magnets of St Mary's as they hurtle around history! The ninth book in The Chronicles of St Mary's Series collects the best-selling short stories in audio for the first time.

'When a Child Is Born': a jump back to 1066 to witness the coronation of William the Conqueror goes slightly astray.

'Roman Holiday': Max and her team become spectacularly involved with Julius Caesar, Cleopatra and a basket of confused asps.

'Christmas Present': an attempt to rescue lost historians involving an enraged pig and Boudicca herself.

'The Very First Damned Thing': discover the truth about the very beginning of St Mary's.

'Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings': a gun left behind in ancient Egypt and a race against time to prevent a catastrophe.

'The Great St Mary's Day Out': hooray! It's a happy holiday. For everyone except Max, the only one with her mind on the job.

'My Name Is Markham': Alfred, the cakes and Mr Markham. The Great British Bake Off it's not!

And a bonus a new and previously unpublished short story - 'A Perfect Storm'.

©2017 Jodi Taylor (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Critic reviews

"Taylor has written a madcap and very funny hodgepodge of a novel whose pacing and humour is reminiscent of a Simon Pegg Edgar Wright film." ( Booklist)

Brilliant

I love that you have compiled all the St. Mary's short stories together. Simply brilliant.

Yes people it's a collection of shorts

Yes there is only one new short story. Yes you can buy it standalone for less if you are patient. However, I wanted all the shorts together so this book satisfies my needs. All the shorts together and one new story.
The new one wasn't my favourite ever but it was still enjoyable.

Nice to have her short stories in one book

I had read all of the short stories and I hadn't read the description for this one, I was just buying the rest of the series and trying to keep them in order. But I enjoyed reading the intro to each story and then jumped to the last one which was a new short story. I enjoy all her books. She's a hoot!

I have listened to all of the historical novels!

I have listened to all of the St. Mary adventure’s, and I cannot wait for the next installment! I feel like I have left a group of friends behind. This is always a sign of excellent writing for me. Jodi Taylor has created a world full of my favorite kind of people exploring my favorite topic, history! And they are doing it in ”contemporary time.” Don't say ”those words!” ;) I listened to the audible production of the first book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the series and loved the narrator for the rest of the audiobooks. This series has it all a bit of humor, traveling through the timeline, adventure, mystery, history, romance that is fun and never too mushy, ups and downs and enough tea to make you want to drink it! 😂While I am anxiously waiting for a new installment, I am going to check out the author’s other books.

Overall a fun collection of St. Mary’s stories

Some of the stories weren’t as entertaining as others but a couple were very funny. It was hard in audible to select a specific story if you were trying to read in chronological order would be my only complaint.

A Collection Of All The St Mary's Novellas

What did you love best about The Long and the Short of It?

That the novella's are fairly self contained and without a lot of distracting side plotlines. They get right to the point with all of their action and humor.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Long and the Short of It?

I think that the Great St. Mary's Day Out, while having the least impact on the greater storyline, is absolutely hilarious and, in my opinion, the best of the bunch.

Which character – as performed by Zara Ramm – was your favorite?

Max with her inherent snarky-ness.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Spend a little time with the disaster magnets of St. Mary's between missions.

Any additional comments?

All great additions to the greater storyline. Most are fairly specific in where they place in the greater storyline. All very worthy additions, but even better if you know where they fit in.

Great stories! Great fun!

I had listened to most of the other stories before this, except for two and, of course, the last story. The others were good but the last story was great! I laughed my butt off. Only wish I could really laugh my butt off (sigh). Great audio all around!

Worth listening to again

Even though I heard a couple previously. it was great to hear the back stories.

So much fun!

How I adore this series! I laugh so much while listening and I still learn things. Humor helps learning sort of like music does, for me anyway.
These are wonderful novellas and short stories between books in the series and the author explains her thinking, what caused her to write each one, how they came into being.
I'm glad it's in my Audible library so I can listen to it in December as most of the stories are holiday related.
A lot of the characters get to tell the stories and there's quite a bit of background on several of them.
I love this series..yes I am saying it again.
I can absolutely definitely recommend this book, series and author.

Compilation of Short Stories- great purchase!

If you could sum up The Long and the Short of It in three words, what would they be?

Love Her (Jodi Taylor) Writing. She makes you laugh and she makes you cry. This book is a compilation of her short stories, not what I would call Book 9 of The Chronicles of St. Mary's. Short Stories included: When a Child is Born; Roman Holiday; Christmas Present; Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings; The Very First Damned Thing; The Great St. Mary's Day Out*; My Name is Markham*; A Perfect Storm. This is a great deal because several of these you can purchase separately,* and could cost as much as this one.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Max - quitting is not in her repertoire

Have you listened to any of Zara Ramm’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Just the St. Mary's series - she does a fabulous job