Top and Worst Compliment? ‘My Mum Loves Your Books’

In the summer of 2022, one novel that gained significant word-of-mouth buzz was Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers. Set in the 1950s suburban south London, the book captivated readers with its tale of suppressed desires, longing in small-town lives, and a subplot centering around a mysterious virgin birth. The Sunday Times praised it as “almost flawless.”

Contrary to what many might think, Chambers was not an overnight sensation. Small Pleasures was her ninth novel, but this book gave her career a remarkable revival, even making it to the longlist for the Women’s Prize.

Following that success, Chambers brings forth Shy Creatures this month. This tender and captivating novel, set in the 1960s, tells the story of an art therapist working in a psychiatric hospital who becomes deeply involved in a love affair with a married man who increasingly disappoints her. Similar to her last novel, everyday life is disrupted by a mystery—in this case, the discovery of a mute man with a beard down to his waist, who has been living in complete seclusion with an elderly aunt. It’s an equally gripping read, if not better.

Here, Chambers offers a glimpse into her reading and writing life.

What is on your To Be Read pile? Is it under control or out of hand?

I have an alarming TBR pile casting a reproachful shadow over my desk, mostly consisting of proofs I promised to read ages ago. I’ve ended up with books now out in paperback. I struggle to say no to books because I understand the need to get my proofs read by others. It’s not very healthy, really.

The best book I’ve read so far this year…

by Larry McMurtry. This hefty novel follows an assortment of rangers, cowboys, misfits, and outlaws driving a herd of mostly stolen cattle from Texas to Montana, all while being pursued by sheriffs, hostile Comanches, and horse thieves. The vivid descriptions make you feel the heat and dust, smell the sweat and hides. The pace never flags over its 800-plus pages.

The first book I ever loved obsessively…

I have a vague memory of a picture book called Jorinde and Joringel—an illustrated Grimm’s fairytale. For unknown reasons, I loved it above all others and made my mum borrow it from the library repeatedly. I wish I could recall the illustrator and why it captivated me so much.

The book I’d save from a burning building…

I’m a terrible coward, so it’s unlikely I would save anything from a burning building. However, I have an album of photos of me and my husband, documenting our growing family, taken each year by the church door where we married. There are 34 of them now, and the earlier ones are pre-digital and irreplaceable. It would be an interesting illustration of changing fashions, if only any of us had ever been fashionable.

The book that surprised me the most…

by Susanna Clarke. Initially, I thought its mystical, other-worldliness wouldn’t appeal to me, but I was hooked from the start. Just when I thought I understood its strangeness, my daughter suggested an interpretation that made me see it in a completely new light and shook me to the core.

The author who has taught me the most…

The authors we read when we are still young and impressionable teach us the most. The Bell by Iris Murdoch was the first novel I read that wasn’t about either courtship or murder and made me want to be a writer as a matter of urgency.

My favourite place to read…

On the couch at home with my feet up and a cup of tea within reach. In the evening, this is just leisure; during the day, I call it research.

The book I’ve written that means the most to me personally is…

, because it transformed my career drastically after decades of underachievement. Sometimes during sleepless nights, I wonder how I would be feeling if it had also failed.

The best thing a reader has said to me – and the worst…

The backhanded compliment is: “My mum loves your books.” My response, though I’m too polite to say it, is: “Mums generally have better taste than their sons.”

Favourite bookshop (and why)?

Village Books in Dulwich – it has great events, a great dog; there’s a patisserie next door, and the owner, Hazel, introduced me to Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny.

Is the book always better than the film?

No. Big books don’t always translate well to film – they lose too much when compressed. Some of the best films come from short stories or novellas: Don’t Look Now, Brokeback Mountain, The Shawshank Redemption. I believe there’s also a tendency to prefer what you encountered first.

‘Shy Creatures’ is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on 29 August.

Source: Orion Publishing, Getty, W&N