And very few of them are spared, since this is also a paean to youthful stupidity and inexperience and inattentive parenting. She studied English at Oxford and spent the year after graduating in New Zealand, where she wrote her first novel, Uncertain Terms, published when she was 25. review: Quirky book, follows a formula I have seen before - shy quiet lonely person gets drawn into a colourful family, and eventually they are treated as a member of the family, before some tragedy results in their total ejection and rejection.

Abigail, the narrator and heroine, was a subtly interesting and very sympathetic character, and the wild Radley family (bad artist father, bread-winning elegant mother with a lover on the side, brooding melancholic son and lively,fun-loving daughter) were brilliantly realized. Overall I really enjoyed it and would recommend it if you’re looking for a read that will take you back to navigating teenage friendships and family life.The characters were, all of them, well-portrayed and Ms Chambers' depiction of Abigail's childhood years (especially the sections where she was bullied at school) was particularly well done. When her three children were teenagers, inspired by their reading habits, she produced two YA novels, Bright Girls (HarperCollins 2009) and Burning Secrets (HarperCollins 2011). She has since written eight further novels, including Learning to Swim (Century 1998) which won the Romantic Novelists' Association best novel award and was adapted as a Radio 4 play, and In a Good Light (Century 2004) which was longlisted for the Whitbread best novel prize.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. Perfect holiday reading, but I don't mean by that to disparage the writing or brand it as merely lightweight. We follow Abigail as she eagerly embarks on new adventures throughout her teenage years in the Radley household.

There are moments of beauty as Abigail observes these colourful characters, never quite realising the significance of some of her interactions. The smart wit and brilliant characters remind me a little of Kate Atkinson but comparisons are in some ways unfair because this author has her own unique voice and style and should be recognised in her own right, which now after the success of Small Pleasures I hope and think she is. An intelligent and escapist read - well written and funny" Daily Express "Modern, intelligently observed and highly original" Daily Mail "A spirited account of growing up and falling in love" Good Housekeeping "This delicious novel - is a joy from beginning to end - a perfect novel" Lisa Jewell "Engagingly written" Prima You may also be interested in. It's not all comedy though - Chambers very movingly depicts Abigail's progression to adulthood, and the eventual weakening of her friendship with Frances Radley. I am delighted to see that Audible are going to release some of Clare Chambers' books (including this one) before the end of the month.

Apart from that small quibble, I really enjoyed this warm and entertaining novel (which I have had on one of my bookcases for years) and found it worked particularly well as a satisfying and undemanding holiday read. In fact after I finished reading I was prompted to turn back to the beginning and examine the first 60 or so pages to make all the connections. Abigail Jex never expected to see any of the Radley household again, and thought that she'd banished the ghost of her life with them, and the catastrophe that ended it, but thirteen years later, a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken.A light read, well written, but a somewhat unoriginal story - teenager drawn into the life of her school friend's eccentric family, with added romance and some family secrets, playing out over a couple of decades. In the present day section too, there seemed to be more going on than was likely - a motor cycle accident, a fire. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I did see a couple of the mini twists coming but that took little away from a thoroughly enjoyable book.