Product Description

Without even noticing, thirty-four-year-old Esther Fairchild has become a prisoner of routine. Living with her adored brother, Christian, she divides her time between illustrating children's books, nightly shifts as a waitress, weekly visits to her father and fortnightly meetings with her married lover. Then one day she encounters a face in the crowd which jolts her out of her mundane existence and makes her question both her life and the past that has helped to shape it. Memories she had long chosen to forget begin to resurface. Memories of an eccentric childhood in a large and shabby house, where the children were very much left to fend for themselves within the loose boundaries of their parents' unorthodox values. A chaotic existence peopled by a rich collection of feckless 'guests'. And into this shambolic world came Donovan - regularly deposited by his unreliable mother - and Penny, Christian's girlfriend and Esther's idol and mentor. Until tragedy struck and shattered all their lives. But now, it seems, their lives are about to become intertwined once more...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71734 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Woman's Own
‘A captivating read’

From the Publisher
'Exquisite - addictive reading' Anna Maxted

About the Author
Clare Chambers was born in 1966, attended a school in Croydon, read English at Oxford and wrote her first novel while she was living in New Zealand. She is the author of Back Trouble, A Dry Spell and Learning to Swim, which won the 1998 Parker Romantic Novel of the Year award. She now lives in Kent with her husband and young family.

Customer Reviews

really delightful romantic comedy
Clare Chambers should be much better known as an author of witty, yet melancholy romantic comedies which explore the whirligigs of fate and families. This is one of her best, describing in retrospect the madly eccentric life of the Fairchilds. Esther and her brother Christian grow up in the kind of Seventies household that will be familiar to many - chaotic, idealistic and furnished with objects rejected from charity donations. Esther and her brother are just as weirdly dressed, but they struggle into normality, Christian by means of a scholarship to a good school, Esther through his girlfriend Penny. Donovan, deposited by his unreliable mother, seems the worst of their feckless guests (their father is a prison chaplain)at the large shabby house, but becomes its saviour - until the violent act that renders Christian a paraplegic and Esther a retiring prisoner of routine.
This outline of the plot doesn't begin to convey the buoyancy and sympathy with which the story is narrated. Esther is one of those dreamy, good-hearted and surprisingly shrewd heroines you fall in love with, and her eventual discovery of happiness and independence comes by the skin of her teeth. Utterly charming and highly recommended.

BUY THIS BOOK NOW!
I am not given to writing gushing reviews on Amazon - in fact this is my first. BUT..(and it is a big but) I have just finished 'In A Good Light' and it was one of the best books I have read in a long time. I just don't understand why there is not more fanfare when Clare Chambers produces a new work. Why is she not at the top of the best seller lists?

I'm not going to re-hash the plot here, just to say that the characterisation was fantastic - the plot carefully thought out,the voice of Esther (the narrator) entirely consistent throughout and the wry, dry humour a delight. Clare Chambers even manages to make a series of coincidences come across as entirely believable. So go on - BUY IT NOW!!

A wonderfully warm tale about growing up.
'In a good light' once again emphasises the talent of author Clare Chambers. The book is centred around Esther, a 30 something woman who confronts her childhood when a blast from the past appears in her life. And this is where Chambers' skill lies; she slowly and skilfully absorbs the reader into Esther's childhood and wonderfully eccentric family. We meet her unconventional but loving parents, and the eclectic range of houseguests they regularly have living with them, and we also meet Esther's beloved older brother whom she idolises. This is a tale about real families and shows how split second decisions can result in life changing moments.

Absorbing, compelling, funny and sad, I felt as though I stepped into the pages of this book. I couldn't put it down but didn't want it to end. Every one of Clare Chambers' books I've read have been thorougly enjoyable but this is definitely her best so far. Highly recommended.