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.
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Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers was published in hardback on 29 August 2024 by W&N. The paperback edition is published in June 2025.
I bought my trade paperback edition at the airport last month.
I have read all of Clare Chambers books, going back years. She was always an author who seemed to go under the radar a little bit, I didn't know many people who had read her work. It was the publication of her novel Small Pleasures in November 2023 that really brought her to readers attention. That novel was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and was featured on BBC's Between The Covers. I loved it and have been eagerly awaiting the publication of Shy Creatures for months.
Shy Creatures begins in 1964 as the reader is introduced to Helen Hansford, a thirty-something art therapist who is currently working at a local psychiatric hospital. Whilst Helen appears to all and sundry as a single woman, she has been in a relationship for three years with married doctor Gil.
Chambers excels in creating relatable, realistic characters who the reader gets to know quite intimately. She also creates an incredible sense of time and place. Her detailed descriptions of the hospital; Westbury Park, and the patients, staff and treatments is vividly and colourfully done.
Helen's life is a round of work, and illicit meetings with Gil. Things change for her when William Tapping is admitted to the hospital. William has spent at least the past twenty years hidden away in his house, with just his elderly aunts for company. His hair and beard are long and matted, and he does not utter a word. He is admitted to the hospital after a fracas at home, his Aunt is admitted with him, but does not live very long.
William is now alone and it is Helen who takes it upon herself to discover more about his history, to encourage his talent for art and to try to find the man under the dirt and the hair.
This is an extraordinary story. The author takes the reader back to William's childhood, we learn about his time with his Aunts, his short time at school and about the only friend he really had. We realise that something very serious has happened in the past, but it is not until later in the story that this is revealed. The reveal is tenderly handled, and Chambers' ability to deal with some of the darkest issues is wise and tender.
This is a coming-of-age story, coupled with the tragedy of misplaced love. The setting is sublime and the characters are wonderful. Highly recommended.
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Small Pleasures, her first work of fiction in ten years, became a word-of-mouth hit on publication, was selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers book club and for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, and was selected as a Book of the Year by The Times, the Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Spectator, Metro, Red and Good Housekeeping. It also won Pageturner of the Year Award at the British Book Awards 2022 and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2021.
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