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Clare Chambers was born in south east London in 1966. Her first novel, Uncertain Terms, was published when she was 25. She has since written nine further novels, including Learning to Swim (Century 1998) which won the Romantic Novelists' Association best novel award and In a Good Light (Century 2004) which was longlisted for the Whitbread best novel prize. Clare began her career as a secretary at the publisher Andre Deutsch, when Diana Athill was still at the helm. They not only published her first novel, but made her type her own contract. In due course she went on to become an editor there herself, until leaving to raise a family and concentrate on her own writing. Some of the experiences of working for an eccentric, independent publisher in the pre-digital era found their way into her novel The Editor's Wife (Century, 2007). Small Pleasures (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2020) was her first novel in a decade and became a word-of-mouth hit. It was selected for BBC2 Between the Covers, and was chosen as a book of the year by The Times, the Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, and Spectator among others. It went on to win Pageturner of the Year at the British Book Awards and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her latest novel is Shy Creatures (Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2024).
It takes considerable skill, imagination and humour to write a novel about 'ordinary' people to whom, on the surface, very little happens - and keep the reader gripped from page to page. However, in this new novel, Clare Chambers, author of Learning to Swim and A Dry Spell, has succeeded triumphantly. Philip is the least likely of heroes: he is approaching forty, his publishing business (dedicated to self-help titles) has gone bankrupt and the love of his life has been forced to return to her native New Zealand. The last straw is a discarded chip on a London pavement on which, slightly hung-over from the previous night's New Year's Eve party, he slips, falling awkwardly and wrenching his back. Bed-bound and bored, he decides to spend his recovery time writing the story of his childhood with put-upon Mum, Dad - the worst DIY operator in the business - and Raymond, his long-emigrated brother. And so, tentatively, Philip begins his story. It is only as it progresses that it becomes clear - to the reader at least - that almost unconsciously he is opening cupboard doors on to skeletons he's only half aware of, some still all-too-solidly flesh and blood. The revelations he conjures up stir something in his depths. For too long he's passively accepted what life has offered to him. It's time for him to take matters into his own hands, and make something happen... (Kirkus UK)
