Nicola Bayley Books in Order
Nicola Bayley has written 13 books, published between 1975 and 2002. The first book is Nicola Bayley's Book of Nursery Rhymes (1975) and the newest is The Curious Cat (2002). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 13
- Published
- 1975–2002
- Pages on record
- 432 in 12 of 13 books
- Reading time
- 7.2–11 hours
Reading time is an estimate, not a recorded figure: 432 pages at 300 words a page, read at 200–300 words a minute, covering the 12 of 13 titles with a page count on record.
Nicola Bayley is a British children's author and illustrator, born in Singapore on August 18, 1949. Bayley is known for pictures of cats, including illustrations for The Tyger Voyage by Richard Adams and The Mousehole Cat by Antonia Barber. The catalogue lists 13 books from Nicola Bayley's Book of Nursery Rhymes (1975) to The Curious Cat (2002), and includes the Copycats series. Titles from 1984 include Crab Cat, Elephant Cat, Parrot Cat and Spider Cat.
How many Nicola Bayley books are there?
Nicola Bayley has 13 books, released between 1975 and 2002. 5 of them belong to the Copycats series.
Nicola Bayley Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 13 Nicola Bayley books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1Nicola Bayley's Book of Nursery Rhymes1975 · confirmed 2/41975–2/4
- 2Puss in Boots1976 · 16 pages · confirmed 2/41976162/4
- 3One Old Oxford Ox1977 · 28 pages · confirmed 2/41977282/4
- 4The Mouldy1983 · 32 pages · confirmed 2/41983322/4
- 51984202/4
- 61984182/4
- 71984202/4
- 81984202/4
- 91984172/4
- 10As I Was Going Up and Down and Other Nonsense Rhymes1985 · 90 pages · confirmed 2/41985902/4
- 11Bedtime & Moonshine: Lullabies and Nonsense1987 · 54 pages · confirmed 2/41987542/4
- 12The Necessary Cat1998 · 77 pages · confirmed 2/41998772/4
- 13The Curious Cat2002 · 40 pages · confirmed 2/42002402/4
Nicola Bayley books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
Copycats in order
5 books- 1. Polar Bear Cat
- 2. Elephant Cat
- 3. Crab Cat
- 4. Spider Cat
- 5. Parrot Cat
Standalone books
8 books8 Nicola Bayley titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Nicola Bayley books in order?
You only need to read Nicola Bayley books in order within the Copycats series, which holds 5 of the 13 Nicola Bayley books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.
Where to start with Nicola Bayley
Start with Nicola Bayley's Book of Nursery Rhymes (1975), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Nicola Bayley book?
The Curious Cat (2002) is the newest Nicola Bayley book released so far.
Is there a new Nicola Bayley book coming?
No next Nicola Bayley book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Nicola Bayley at a glance
- No recent titles
- The newest Nicola Bayley title on record dates from 2002, 24 years ago. No later title is catalogued.
- Release pace
- Nicola Bayley books have appeared about one every 2 years on average.
- Length
- 432 pages across the 12 of 13 books with a recorded length, a median of 24 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Nicola Bayley books, 8 of 13, were published in the 1980s.
What the Nicola Bayley books are about
All 13 Nicola Bayley books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: cats is tagged on 7 of 13. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Cats 7 of 13 books
- Children's fiction 7 of 13 books
- Imagination 5 of 13 books
- Nursery rhymes 2 of 13 books
- Pictorial works 2 of 13 books