Small Pleasures
- Authors
- Chambers, Clare
- Publisher
- Weidenfeld & Nicolson
- Tags
- fashion , mystery & detective , fiction , later years , family & relationships , contemporary , family life , 20th century , upcycling & repurposing , marriage & divorce , dysfunctional families , life stages , parenting , historical , later in life , women , crafts & hobbies , romance , adult , private investigators , mystery , friendship , literary
- ISBN
- 9781474613910
- Date
- 2020-07-09T00:00:00+00:00
- Size
- 0.40 MB
- Lang
- en
1957, south-east suburbs of London. Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother: a small life from which there is no likelihood of escape.
When a young Swiss 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. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely (and not unpleasantly) intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen is now a friend, and her quirky and charming daughter Margaret a sort of surrogate child. And Jean doesn't mean to fall in love with Gretchen's husband, Howard, but Howard surprises her with his dry wit, his intelligence and his kindness - and when she does fall, she falls hard.
But he is married, and to her friend - who is also the subject of the story she is researching for the newspaper, a story that increasingly seems to be causing dark ripples across all their lives. And yet Jean cannot bring herself to discard the chance of finally having a taste of happiness...
But there will be a price to pay, and it will be unbearable.