Clare Chambers's first job after university was working for Diana Athill at Andre Deutsch. Her first novel Uncertain Terms was published in 1992 and she is the author of eight other novels.Small Pleasures, her first work of fiction in ten years, became a word-of-mouth hit on publication, was selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers book club and for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, and was selected as a Book of the Year by The Times, the Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Spectator, Metro, Red and Good Housekeeping. It also won Pageturner of the Year Award at the British Book Awards 2022 and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2021.
A very fine book... It's witty and sharp and reads like something
by Barbara Pym or Anita Brookner, without ever feeling like a
pastiche.
*David Nicholls, author of ONE DAY*
Perfect.
*India Knight*
Small lives, love and loneliness, wit and despair all wrapped in an
unexpected mystery and placed in a perfectly-realised 50s setting.
Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind.
*Lissa Evans, author of OLD BAGGAGE*
This is one of the most tender, beautiful books I have ever read.
Please, please order it now for July. I honestly don't want you to
be without it. It is exquisite.
*Lucy Mangan*
I've had about five people recommend this to me, which is quite
rare... It's a novel about the last throw of the dice, the last
chance perhaps of finding a life of happiness when you've had a
struggle. The writing is beautiful. This is also the first novel
Chambers has written for 10 years, which I find really inspiring. I
think there's this discourse in our culture that you've got to have
everything done in your first book ... But Chambers has been away
for 10 years and she's come back with this absolute humdinger. It's
just so nice to read a book by someone who's so confident with
their talent. I'm glad she's having this renaissance.
*Jessie Burton*
Quietly remarkable... Small Pleasures is no small pleasure.
*THE TIMES*
Small Pleasures is an almost flawlessly written tale of genuine,
grown-up romantic anguish. Written in prose that is clipped as
closely as suburban hedges, this is a book about seemingly mild
people concealing turbulent feelings... one of the great strengths
of the book is its tender, atmospheric descriptions of England: wet
leaves, misted windows, the "melancholy sense of approaching dusk".
Small Pleasures succeeds in creating one of those enclosed
fictional worlds that, however desolate, has its own rules, its own
flavour and its own charm.
*THE SUNDAY TIMES*
There's compassion and quiet humour to be found in this tale of a
putative virgin birth in postwar suburban London...
Chambers's eye for drab, undemonstrative details achieves a
Larkin-esque lucidity.
*GUARDIAN*
An irresistible novel - wry, perceptive and quietly
devastating.
*MAIL ON SUNDAY*
Small Pleasures is no twee romance, but a quietly compelling novel
of duty and desire.
*THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH*
Wonderful.
*Richard Osman*
A wonderful novel. I loved it.
*Nina Stibbe*
Miraculous.
*Tracy Chevalier*
A beautiful and moving read set in 1950s suburbia that'll be on
bookseller tables across the land this summer
*STYLIST*
This is a dazzling, exquisitely written story of how happiness and
even love can find us when we least expect it.
*RED*
There are small pleasures aplenty in Clare Chambers' quietly
observed, 1950s-set story . . . Chambers' novel combines a
startling storyline with an engagingly nuanced portrait of post-war
suburban femininity
*METRO*
A stunning novel to steal your heart.
*WOMAN & HOME*
A wonderfully compassionate imagining of the post-war years, darned
with the fine skeins of love.
*SAINSBURY’S MAGAZINE*
I loved this novel, which simmers with repressed emotions, and the
gut punch of an ending really stayed with me.
*GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Book of the Month*
The glorious literary equivalent of pulling the duvet over your
head... Both an absorbing mystery and a tender love story - and the
ending is devastating. Chambers is a writer who finds the truth in
things. If you admire Tessa Hadley or Anne Tyler (and there are
shades of Barbara Pym too), then this is one for you.
*The Bookseller, Book of the Month*
It is a glorious piece of storytelling where powerful emotions and
awful revelations are treated with a dignity that makes them all
the more devastating.
*DAILY MIRROR*
A gentle, heart-aching mystery that's infused with empathy and a
keen understanding of stifling 1950s mores.
*DAILY MAIL*
The author's first novel in almost 10 years is so good it made me
want to read her entire backlist!.. An enticing read.
*PRIMA*
I am perverse about those books that acquire a sudden, unexpected
popularity; perhaps a combination of natural contrariness and fear
of being out of step with the cultural zeitgeist. I'm glad I
overcame that irrational prejudice for Small Pleasures by Clare
Chambers, another story of lives that appear to have hit the
buffers . . . A little gem of a book that transplants the listener
quite elsewhere, while exploring the abiding issue of how much we
are prepared to suspend our disbelief if we glimpse a chance of
happiness.
*Financial Times (Best Audiobooks)*
Clare Chambers's novel is a delight to read: completely and utterly
haunting... Quietly confident with moments of vibrant humour, this
is an exquisitely drawn study of human fragility.
*THE LADY*
Part mystery, part love story, part reflection on changing
attitudes to sexuality in post-war Britain, Small Pleasures is a
disarmingly gentle read that quietly builds to a devastating
conclusion.
*PRESS ASSOCIATION - syndicated across regional newspapers and
websites*
A devourable mystery with a side order of love story set in 1950s
suburbia.
*GRAZIA*
Hauntingly tender, and written with powerful grace, Clare
Chambers's Small Pleasures is an absolute joy from start to
finish... Laying bare a quivering three-way tug between obligation,
propriety and passion, and the inexplicable way thunderbolt-bonds
are formed between similar-souled individuals, Jean's conflicts and
chance to love truly get under your skin. What a remarkable book,
with a dagger-sharp climax that will pierce your heart.
*LOVEREADING - July Picks of the Month and a Star Book*
Beautiful... Small Pleasures is a sort of meditation on finding
moments of joy (a solo cigarette, a melting ice-cream) in a context
of wider sadness.
*Emma Beddington in the Observer Magazine*
Small Pleasures is a tender and heart-rending tale that will draw
you in from the first page and keep you gripped until the very end.
Exquisitely compelling!
*Ruth Hogan, author of THE KEEPER OF LOST THINGS*
Clare Chambers is that rare thing, a novelist of discreet hilarity,
deep compassion and stiletto wit whose perspicacious account of
suburban lives with their quiet desperation and unexpected passion
makes her the 21st century heir to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and
Elizabeth Taylor. Small Pleasures is both gripping and a huge
delight. I loved what she did with the trope of the claim of a
virgin birth, and how the hope of a miracle opens the door to love,
kindness and hope in an arid existence. This is better than Eleanor
Oliphant Is Completely Fine and deserves just as much acclaim.
*Amanda Craig, author of THE LIE OF THE LAND*
Clare Chambers is such a witty, astute and subtle writer. There is
a delightful whiff of Pym or Whipple about Small Pleasures - it's
an absolute delight!
*Lucy Atkins, author of MAGPIE LANE*
Elegant, compelling, funny, sad. I loved every word of this tone
perfect novel. I was so absorbed I stopped only to wonder if the
author had squirrelled away a lost classic by Barbara Pym and
presented it as her own.
*Polly Samson, author of A THEATRE FOR DREAMERS*
Small Pleasures is a gorgeous treat of a novel: the premise is
fascinating, the characters beautifully drawn and utterly
compelling, the period setting masterfully and delicately evoked,
and the plot is full of unexpected twists and turns. And oh, the
finale broke my heart. I just couldn't put this novel down.
*Laura Barnett, #1 bestselling author of THE VERSIONS OF US*
I adored Small Pleasures. It's engrossing and gripping: you want to
race on and relish every sentence at the same time. I love the way
Clare writes - her wry, subtle turns of phrase, the humour in the
smallest of observations, the finely drawn characters. A wonderful
book'
*Sabine Durrant, author of LIE WITH ME*
A delicious mystery and a touching exploration of loneliness and
desire in cloying 1950s suburbia - a great read.
*Sally Magnusson, author of THE SEALWOMAN'S GIFT*
Small Pleasures is the best sort of book: full of longing, regret
and difficult emotions but leavened with so much warmth and humour
it was a joy from start to finish.
*Francesca Jakobi, author of BITTER*
The must-read uplifting book of the summer.
*WEST END LANE BOOKSHOP*
You know one of those rare books that just immerses you with its
richly constructed world and compelling narrative. Well, Small
Pleasures is that book.
*BOOK RIOT, Best Books of Summer 2020*
Praise for the audiobook:
Narrated by Karen Cass, who ably gives voice to a range of
characters including lugubrious journalists, the potential
trickster, Swiss woman Gretchen Tilbury, and her phlegmatic husband
Howard, it's a little gem of a book that transplants the listener
quite elsewhere, while exploring the abiding issue of how much we
are prepared to suspend our disbelief if we glimpse a chance of
happiness.
*FINANCIAL TIMES*
The novel's charms lie less in its sensational subject than in the
journalist's tentative efforts to escape the drab horizons of her
daily existence. Quietly perfect.
*EVENING STANDARD, Books of the Year*
Blissful.
*THE SPECTATOR, Books of the Year*
This is a dazzling, exquisitely written story of how happiness and
even love can find us when we least expect it.
*RED MAGAZINE, 10 Best Books of 2020*
This novel brings a sensibility not unlike those of Barbara Pym and
Philip Larkin to a story (inspired by a real-life episode in the
1950s) of a woman who claims to have had a child by virgin birth...
In a milieu of reticence and chin-up stoicism, startling
revelations surface and emotions hopefully stir.
*THE TIMES, Best Novels of 2020*
Made me want to read the whole of her back catalogue!... An
enticing read.
*PRIMA, Books of the Year*
One of the year's most quietly affecting books... achingly
tender.
*THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, Books of the Year*
PRAISE FOR CLARE CHAMBERS
'Clare Chambers is a diamond in the dust' Independent on Sunday
'Clare Chambers' characters are so vivid that, by the end of the
book, they feel like old friends' Daily Mail
A book I very much enjoyed and will be gifting is SMALL PLEASURES
by Clare Chambers. It's a love story tangled up with a very
satisfying mystery. The portrayal of post-war suburbia, its boredom
and frustration, is so vivid and you long for the characters to
find happiness. It's Brief Encounter with an ingenious twist.
*GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Books of the Year*
Set in 1957, Chambers' atmospheric tale of lonely journalist Jean
and her last chance at love is compelling, beautifully written and
will shatter your heart into smithereens. Unmissable.
*DAILY EXPRESS, Books of the Year*
Clare Chambers' novels have a unique quality of elegiac charm, and
Small Pleasures, her breakthrough success, is set in
recognisable 1950s' Kent. The setting alone is a wonderful escape
from our own big bad reality and the plot - based on a true story
of a woman who claimed to have undergone a virgin birth - is both
striking and atmospheric. Hers is a lost suburban world of quiet
anguish and inhibited ecstasies. Chambers is compared to Barbara
Pym but is more joyful and
addictive. I was hooked from her first novel. Treat yourself to all
her work.
*THE TABLET, Best Books of the Year*
Some of the year's most purely enjoyable reading could be found in
this perfectly formed, 1950s-set tale... A droll, charming and
wholly absorbing blend of period mystery and romance.
*METRO, Books of the Year*
I loved this book. Thoughtful and empathetic storytelling that is
full of suspense. It is full of conflict, asking questions about
duty and happiness.
*I NEWSPAPER*
Clare Chambers's bittersweet novel of unexpected late love is
beautifully observed and quietly compelling.
*DAILY MAIL*
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