Beautifully written - the characters rang true and once again Clare Chambers description of the inner lives of "quiet" characters produces something moving.

After reading this, I am very excited to dive into Clare Chambers’ back catalogue and see what other wonders she’s conjured up. This book was a beautiful, sad telling of 1964 Croydon suburbia with gentle characters who you truly felt like you knew. I really loved it, and can imagine it being made into a daytime ITV drama 🦡

Having read Clare Chambers' previous release, 'Small Pleasures', I was intrigued to see where she was going next. This shared a lot of similar themes with 'Small Pleasures' and I felt the same feelings when reading. However, whilst I would have preferred the two novels to be more different, I did enjoy 'Shy Creatures' much more. I thought she had developed the themes of infidelity, childhood trauma and post war Britain in a more interesting and well rounded way. William's character was fascinating and I thought she depicted the two settings of William's childhood home and the Kenley's cottage really affectingly.

Brilliant novel once again by Clare Chambers, I was hooked. Well rounded characters and an interesting story. Having loved Small Pleasures I was super excited to get an ARC.

The year is 1964 and we follow the story of Helen, she works as a art therapist in a psychiatric hospital (never knew they existed but what an amazing job to have) and when a 30 something year old man (William), who has been found mute and living in a shambles really with his Aunt, Helen starts to try and really help him with life and his artistic flair.

Well written and quite moving at times I found this novel to be.

Thanks to Clare Chambers, the author and publishers for allowing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers is one of my favourite reads of 2024. It’s a story of families, relationships and secrets, set in the 1960s and developed from a true story. Helen is an art therapist who works in a psychiatric hospital and is having an affair with one of the consultants. They are called to a house to meet William, a 37 year-old man who’s been discovered in a house having not been out for many years. The storyline follows Helen and William’s journeys and those of their family. I loved the characters in this book, particularly William but also Helen’s niece Lorraine who gives a window into the life of a teenager in the 60s.
I’ll definitely be recommending this book and can’t wait to read the author’s other book and any more to come! With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I very much enjoyed the historical setting of this story, I am particularly interested in the post-war emergence of psychology and mental health treatments in "asylums". I had quite a dislike of one of the characters that continued throughout the story to detract from my enjoyment of the plot, I felt that although justice was served I still spent most of the story irritated by them.
It's an interesting and emotional story about mental health, societal pressures and the abuses of power that affect lives.

Much like Small Pleasures, Chambers' previous novel, this is a quiet, historical with deep themes surrounding relationships, identity and independence. This novel takes a real life story of a neglected man discovered by police and admitted to a psychiatric hospital and creates a fictional background to the event. Chambers explored mental health in the 1960s with accuracy and sensitivity and this book had propulsion as we flip between the past and find out more of how William, one of the protagonists ended up in the poor state in which he was found. I enjoyed this novel and think Chambers writes intelligent novels that are easy reads.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Wow what an extraordinary book, my first read from Clare Chambers, and I’m mightily impressed. The writing is really quite exquisite, beautiful descriptions, and observations of the human condition, emotions and perceived madness. Set against a backdrop of 1960’s London suburbia and how neuro-diverse people were once seen.
This is also about the emerging awareness of how mental health was treated and understood after the second World War. It’s a hard read in places yet historically bang on!
The story centres around Helen starting at the mental hospital in Croydon as an art therapist and her experience of the different patients and their doctors. She quickly finds herself in an impossible relationship with one of the married psychiatrists, but their work together is key.
Beautifully observed and relayed, this book is a true gem, the narrative is so beautifully composed constructed and crafted. A joy to read.
I enjoyed this tale way more than I thought I would, I was completely drawn into the lives of the characters and their lives and circumstances.
Just brilliant!
Thank you NetGalley and W&N for the early read, fascinating and thoughtful. Highly recommended.

I’ve both been longing for and dreading the new Clare Chambers book.  She’s given herself so much to live up to with Small Pleasures which is one of my favourite books of the past few years.  It’s a huge relief therefore that this easily matches (and possibly even surpasses) the brilliance of the earlier book. 

Clare Chambers knows what she does well: she finds her interest piqued by an old newspaper clipping and builds her own story on it.  Just like Jean in Small Pleasures our heroine is a sensible, slightly thwarted but redoubtable middle-aged woman in an unlovely part of the 1960s London suburbs (here it is Croydon).

Just as in Small Pleasures there’s a lot of nostalgia reading about cocoa and biscuits, cricket matches and childhood pleasures splashing about in streams, at the same time as a wake-up call about the dangers of repressed emotions, stiff upper lips and enforced innocence.  The schoolboy William, and his eccentric aunts are incredibly endearing, and this book has the same emphasis as the earlier one on decency, female friendships and compassion.

Chambers is the master of observation.

This book manages to be cosy but, make no mistake, it’s also incredibly sad and dark and full of longing.  I don’t think I could love Clare Chambers more.  I’ve read some great books this year but this is top of the list for me.

Shy Creatures
By Clare Chambers

When Clare Chambers read a newspaper article about a bedraggled man unknown to neighbours, who was found, following a fracas evolving clothes flung out a window, living in squalor with his elderly aunt, she was moved to imagine what has happened in his life that he spent 25 years as a recluse only to emerge childlike, almost naked, with 5 ft long hair, a 2ft long beard and mute.

As a child I clearly remember a similar situation occuring in Finglas, not far from where I grew up, and I was immediately drawn to the premise, albeit with trepidation, because the woman involved in my neighbourhood has remained in my heart for 50 years and I have a protective feeling about how a story like this should be told. (Side eye at Sally Diamond)

This is my first Clare Chambers and I'm relieved to say that this story is in good hands.

There is an old fashioned quality to the storytelling, and I mean that in a positive way. There are 2 timelines, one set in 1960's beginning with the grim discovery and the medical and psychiatric treatment employed, and the 2nd is a reverse timeline from earlier in the 60's back to the 1930's, which resolves the layered reasons that William and his aunts ended up the way they did.

The main protagonist is Helen, an art therapist, who is involved in an illicit relationship with Clive, a colleague, one of the psychiatrists at Westbury Park, where William is admitted for treatment and recovery. They, like most of the characters are deeply flawed, but utterly relatable.

Chambers chose the 60's setting because she considered it an interesting time in the history of psychiatry, and her deep research of both that field and of the social and cultural period really pays off, giving this book such an air of authenticity that I almost believed it had been written in that time, by someone with the sensibilities of the time.

Despite the tragic circumstances of William and his squandered youth, the book is imbued with much humour and some shenanigans that would have been too scandalous to laugh about in the sixties.

A highly entertaining story that turns a lens on the many versions of mental illness, and the thin veil that separates the patient from the healer.

Publication date: 29th August 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #OrionPublishing for access to the eGalley

Small Pleasures in 2021 introduced a wider audience to the writing of Clare Chambers and following this brilliant novel her new book Shy Creatures should most certainly have the same success

Similarly this story predominantly focuses on the post war decades 1940s-1960s. This is a cleverly woven plot and follows the life of Helen Hansford - a single art teacher working within a psychiatric hospital - who is having an affair with a 'charismatic ' doctor/therapist who happens to be married to a second cousin. The novel focuses upon Helen's choices and how she questions herself to live her life in the way she truly wants especially against the growing backdrop of the emancipation of post war women in England.

The premise is set for what seems a romantic novel focussed upon Helen - her family and relationships and life within the institute but the story takes an intriguing turn when two new patients are submitted to the hospital - one is the mysterious William Tapping who has been found living inside a house for over two decades - never having been allowed to join the 'outside world; the other patient is Helen's teenage niece Lorraine who appears to be behaving 'oddly' at home.

The story of William who has lived enclosed in the home of three aunts is told in a series of reverse chronological incidents - why is William 'trapped' and what led to this when he just entering his teens? The story of William is gradually explored and exposed by Helen whilst she also tries to ensure her niece is subjected to medicinal treatments that could have a longer harmful impact. The story of William is beautifully told and is heartbreaking in many ways- a single event transforming the life of a child.

The story moves at a good pace and the characters of Helen and William are truly engaging

Clare Chambers captures period details, suppressed English emotions and the interaction within families and work communities just perfectly. This is a moving story of caring, love ,finding identity and being allowed to be your true self and sensitively explores the frailties within people.

Highly recommended - another winner.

Clare Chambers is fast becoming one of my go-to authors. Like so many, I thoroughly enjoyed Small Pleasures and The Editor's Wife, and again, this is a very satisfying read. Her ability to capture characters' voices is admirable and never falters throughout. There is a compassion for them which shines through and especially highlights the constraints people lived under in times gone by. Equally impressive is how she captures a time she didn't live through so authentically. Another gem - deserves a wide readership




With many thanks to Netgalley for my copy of this wonderful read.

I really liked the story. The setting was very interesting and I liked the point of view. The changes in the timeline were good to follow and think well integrated. They made the story more interesting that just a simple retelling from the new timeline. The characters were likeable and the development was believable.
I recommend the book highly!

As an art therapist at a psychiatric hospital, Helen has helped many patients and has also been having an affair with one if the doctors there, Gil. He is adamant that he won't leave his wife until his children are older, so Helen takes the opportunities to spend time with him when she can and never puts herself first, but when they meet troubled young man William, everything changes.

I found this quite slow to start and didn't quite enjoy the beginning as much as I did from when William was introduced, when I found that it held my attention a lot more. The two timelines weaved together well and the characters well drawn. It covers some sensitive subjects, but this is always done in a gentle way and the fact that it is based on a true story makes it all the more poignant.

Clare Chambers has somehow used up all the words in our language that none I have to offer can really do justice to this superb novel.
As the author of 'Small Pleasures' (which I also loved) I was looking forward to the author's deft touch across a story that unfolds like layers of cotton across our laps.
William Tapping - the Hidden Man- is found with his last aunt in a run down house in South London. Helen Hansford and Dr Gil Rudden are responsible for his care when he is taken into the local mental hospital, Westbury Park. Talk of Croydon, Allders furniture shop Fairfield Halls concert venue all took me back to working in what was an old Victorian Asylum, St Lawrence's Hospital in Caterham some 40 years ago. So once again I was on familiar ground knowing that the author would be dealing with these cases of madness and mental health with a sympathetic (not sentimental) view.
All the characters are instantly intriguing and the small actions - particularly referring back to William's stolen childhood with his aunts- were pitch perfect in their description and narrative. How I loved the cat Boswell saved from the blizzards and the small art masterpieces undertaken by William. The clothes, cars, food and even shoes become the details that widen the lives of the characters.
How that was absorbed into Helen's work in the art therapy department in the hospital and held against the ethics and practices of changing times in psychiatry of the 1960s. I recognised the place, the grounds, the patients- even the medications discussed. But even if I hadn't had experience of those the story carries its readers with detail that is wonderful. How art and speech therapy and space made people 'better' and not just the patients.
Love, friendship relationships and marriage are all explored with that lightness but insight into the corners of hearts and minds.
There is so much to take from this outstanding novel. It will stand against all others by Clare Chambers in a glow of glory.

We are introduced to William when police and psychiatrists are called to his Aunt Louisa’s house as clothes are thrown out of the house. It soon becomes clear that whilst this may be an unusual occurrence, it is not the only unusual thing about the household. William has not left the house for many years, for reasons which are only revealed much later in the book, but under the care of the staff at Westbury Park, he begins to confront his past.

Meanwhile, Helen, caught in an affair with her colleague, has a crisis in her own life. Through helping William to rediscover his story, she begins to take control of her own and realise that she wants and deserves more than what she has. Matters are complicated further with the admittance of another patient to Westbury Park and ultimately, everything comes to a boiling head.

Although not a page-turner in the traditional sense of the description, I was engaged with the characters and hooked on the plot almost from page one. The book explores developments in psychiatry and understanding of mental health and although it sticks very much to the treatments and attitudes of the time, there is one moment of 21st-century-style enlightenment from one character, which is so strikingly at odds with my perception of attitudes at the time, that I rejoiced in it.

I’ve loved all of Clare Chambers’ books so far and this was no exception. She gives her readers a fascinating insight into the workings of human relationships - what draws people together and what pushes them apart - and even when her characters do things of which we may not approve, they are so beautifully written that we cannot help but empathise with them.

Helen works as an art therapist at a psychiatric hospital near Croydon in the 1960s. Fo rthe last few years she has been having an affair with Gil, one of the doctors there. Sadly he is married with children and although he says he loves her, will not leave his wife until the children are grown.
They bumble along like this until William Tapping is admitted after being discovered in his family home after having had a major row with his last remaining aunt. They are both admitted to the hospital and when the Aunt dies, William is left alone. He doesn't speak, but Helen has discovered that he is a brilliant artist. and uses this to draw him out of his shell.
As time progresses, other things happen to change Helen and William's lives forever.
As with previous books by this author, this is a delight to read.

Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers is a strangely compelling character driven tale told through two characters in dual timelines. In 1964 we meet Helen, an art therapist working in a psychiatric hospital in London. She has been having an affair with one of the doctors, Gil, an older married man who happens to be married to a distant relative of Helen. She is drawn to him physically but also because of the way he treats her an a professional when talking about patients, advances in therapy etc. One weekend a new patient is admitted, William, a man in his late thirties, who was found, along with an elderly woman, apparently his aunt, as part of a wellness check. William does not speak and it seems that he has been shut up in the house for decades, never venturing outside its doors. William is a skilled artist and Helen soon finds herself invested in him and his story, making it her mission to try to find out why he was hidden away for so long, but in doing so she uncovers a shocking secret.
I think this is a beautiful story about how important kindness is and how even the smallest gesture can make a difference when someone is having a tough time. It is not without its darker moments and there is a definite theme of control running through from the relatively minor things like Gil dictating what type of music Helen should listen to, to his expectation that she is available to him at his convenience which means she has distanced herself from friends and family to more extreme examples like William's confinement or the attitudes to some of the patients at the hospital where Helen and Gil work.
I knew this author could write a compelling story with well rounded characters and I was not disappointed. The skill with which she played out the reveal of William's back story was impeccable, I was absolutely hooked and needed to keep reading even when I knew where the story was heading.
Overall a beautifully written character driven story that will be enjoyed by many readers.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

An exquisite piece of writing yet again by an author who excels in observing and recreating nuggets of human foibles in glorious technicolour. It is a heart breaking and ultimately heart warming story told over multiple timelines and highlights the implications of family secrets, societal pressure and loyalties. A wonderful book.
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own unbiased opinion.

Shy Creatures is set in the 60's when a mute man is discovered living with his aunt after not being seen for 20+ years. I loved the premise of the story and Helen's character but I found it slow in places. I really enjoy Clare's style of writing and loved Small Pleasures so I will read more by her.