She took up a post as Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Kent in September 2020. She lives with her husband in southeast London.

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Praise for Small Pleasures

“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 twenty-first-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

“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 humor in the smallest of observations, the finely drawn characters. A wonderful book.”

—Sabine Durrant, author of Lie With Me

“Small Pleasures is a gorgeous treat of a novel: the premise is fascinating, the characters are 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, author of The Versions of Us

“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 humor it was a joy from start to finish.”

—Francesca Jakobi, author of Bitter

Also by Clare Chambers

Uncertain Terms

Back Trouble

Learning to Swim

A Dry Spell

In a Good Light

The Editor’s Wife

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

SMALL PLEASURES. Copyright © 2021 by Clare Chambers. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Originally published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Cover design by Jeanne Reina