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