Small Pleasures

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About the book

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021

‘A WORD-OF-MOUTH HIT’ Evening Standard

‘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

‘Perfect’

India Knight

‘Beautiful’

Jessie Burton

‘Wonderful’

Richard Osman

‘Miraculous’

Tracy Chevalier

‘A wonderful novel. I loved it’

Nina Stibbe

‘Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind’

Lissa Evans

‘This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. I honestly don’t want you to be without it’

Lucy Mangan

‘Gorgeous… If you’re looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I could not recommend more’

Pandora Sykes

‘Remarkable… Small Pleasures is no small pleasure’

The Times

‘An irresistible novel – wry, perceptive and quietly devastating’

Mail on Sunday

‘Chambers’ eye for undemonstrative details achieves a Larkin-esque lucidity’

Guardian

‘An almost flawlessly written tale of genuine, grown-up romantic anguish’

The Sunday Times

1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape.

When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud.

As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and – possibly – happiness.

But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay.

Book of the Year for: The Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Daily Express, Metro, Spectator, Red Magazine and Good Housekeeping