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A Dry Spell
A Dry Spell
Dec 4, 2025 11:40 AM

Author:Clare Chambers

A Dry Spell

From the highly-acclaimed author of SMALL PLEASURES - WINNER of the 2022 British Book Awards Page-Turner.

In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them...

And repercussions are exactly what Guy doesn't need. His wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane's sanity, and now even God's gone quiet on him.

As for Nina, she is having enough trouble with her son, James. He has exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts and now, it seems, he's on drugs. Nina certainly will not welcome any ghosts from the past.

Life isn't going smoothly for anyone. But when Hugo, long-forgotten agent of misfortune, threatens to pay them all a visit, disaster seems unavoidable. . .

____________________

Praise for Clare Chambers:

'Bleak but funny, sharply observed characters and crisp dialogue make this a great read' Yorkshire Post

'Intriguing and thought-provoking' Katie Fforde

'A wonderful novel. I loved it!!' Nina Stibbe

'Gorgeous. . . If you are looking for something escapist and bittersweet, I couldn't recommend it more!' Pandora Sykes

'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' Sunday Times

'Effortless to read, but every sentence lingers in the mind' Lissa Evans

Reviews

A remarkable novel

—— The Times

A major book

—— Daily Telegraph

Tremain is superb

—— Independent

Funny, absorbing and quite original. I've read nothing to touch it this year

—— Literary Review

Sacred Country is a book that we give to our friends and are glad to have read…it makes us look forward to Ms. Tremain’s other books with hungry pleasure

—— New York Times

A remarkable book about Perec's own early life whose formality is quite hauntingly at odds with its terrible subject

—— Guardian

Perec has a political edge and his books can shift your mental furniture. This is a fine example of a very brave idea that he made work quite brilliantly. as horrifying as Orwell but as ludicrous as Monty Python. What two bizarre flavours to mix into the same dish and not nauseate the reader! It's brilliant. It is a very influential book and it's always in the background of my writing. It's a very fine role model because it says you can make anything work as long as you navigate the pitfalls.

—— David Mitchell

I re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life.

—— Daisy Goodwin

He has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply

—— The New York Review of Books

[A] comic masterpiece

—— Irish Times

Comic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive

—— The Telegraph

It's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English Literature.

—— Melvyn Bragg

Sparky debut

—— Jonathan Barnes , Literary Review

Benedictus takes us on a trail of the contentious highs and lows of the rich and famous in a mixture of dark humour and sharp dialogue. For Benedictus, and his valiant debut novel, more of the same please

—— Ben Bookless , Big Issue

The story of the ultimate celeb after-party, it's a knowing wink at publishing and celebrity culture - a high-concept first novel sitting just the right side of salacious

—— Elle

The Afterparty avoids smugness partly because it has more affection that vitriol for the culture that it mocks... It's very funny, but sad, too... Well-drawn characters, smart dialogue and a canny plot

—— Anthony Cummins , The Times
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