From the Women's Prize longlisted, British Book Award-winning, bestselling author of Small Pleasures, a new novel about love, family and the joy of freedom.

'I was worried this wouldn't be as good as the brilliant Small Pleasures, but it might be even better. Clare Chambers is a genius' INDIA KNIGHT

'Wise, beautifully measured and as compelling as you want fiction to be' SUNDAY TIMES

'A tender, absorbing novel . . . And it's just as good - if not better - than her last' INDEPENDENT

'Shy Creatures confirms Clare Chambers as one of our most talented writers' GUARDIAN

In all failed relationships there is a point that passes unnoticed at the time, which can later be identified as the beginning of the decline. For Helen it was the weekend that the Hidden Man came to Westbury Park.

Croydon, 1964. Helen Hansford is in her thirties and an art therapist in a psychiatric hospital where she has been having a long love affair with Gil: a charismatic, married doctor.

One spring afternoon they receive a call about a disturbance from a derelict house not far from Helen's home. A thirty-seven-year-old man called William Tapping, with a beard down to his waist, has been discovered along with his elderly aunt. It is clear he has been shut up in the house for decades, but when it emerges that William is a talented artist, Helen is determined to discover his story.

Shy Creatures is a life-affirming novel about all the different ways we can be confined, how ordinary lives are built of delicate layers of experience, the joy of freedom and the transformative power of kindness.

'A magnificent novel. I loved it to its bones' EMMA STONEX

'A lively, funny, forgiving novel' PATRICK GALE

'Completely absorbing' LISSA EVANS

'A rich and tender story of kindness and compassion' RUTH HOGAN

*Small Pleasures was a Silver Award bestseller according to Nielsen BookScan UK, 10 November 2023

From the author of bestselling sensation Small Pleasures comes a life-affirming exploration of love, loneliness and the quiet forces that shape our lives.

'Just as good - if not better - than Small Pleasures' INDEPENDENT

'As compelling as you want fiction to be' SUNDAY TIMES

'One of our most talented authors' GUARDIAN

'A beautiful story of unfolding secrets and unforeseen consequences' HOLLY GRAMAZIO, author of THE HUSBANDS

Croydon, 1964. Art therapist Helen Hansford is working in a psychiatric hospital, where she has been having passionate but precarious affair with her married colleague, the charismatic Dr Gil Rudden.

Helen's structured life is upended when William Tapping - a silent, thirty-seven-year-old man with a beard down to his waist - arrives the hospital. As Helen helps William express himself through art, she becomes increasingly entangled in his mysterious past.

Inspired by a true story, Shy Creatures is a life-affirming exploration of loneliness, love and the quiet forces that shape our lives, reminding us that freedom can come in unexpected forms.

'Reading a Clare Chambers novel can feel like entering a modest bungalow and finding yourself in a cathedral' SUNDAY TIMES

'Extraordinary' FINANCIAL TIMES

'A warm, multi-layered mystery brimming with all the same nostalgia, wit and tenderness as Small Pleasures' i PAPER

'A lively, funny, forgiving novel' PATRICK GALE

'Chambers is such a humane writer and this novel is full of exquisite detail' EVENING STANDARD


*Small Pleasures was a Silver Award bestseller according to Nielsen BookScan UK, 10 November 2023