Learning To Swim

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I wish the author had spent more time developing the part of the story connected with Abigail's discovery of a previously unknown family member - but I cannot explain further for fear of spoiling the novel for those who have yet to read it. Nothing is quite what eleven year old Abigail realised, and we watch as she slowly becomes aware of the shifting nature of her relationships. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

The book is set in London and revolves around Abigail and her friendship with Frances who come from very different families. The Radley’s were extraordinary, captivating creatures transplanted from a bohemian corner of North London to outer suburbia, and the young Abigail found herself drawn into their magic circle: the eccentric Frances, her new best friend; Frances’ mother, the liberated, headstrong Lexi; and of course the brilliant, beautiful Rad. The party was being given by a girl at school, and in recognition of the shortage of available males we had all been instructed to “bring a boy.When Abigail's friend and fellow musician, Grace, notices the awkwardness of their brief reunion, and later asks Abigail about Rad, Abigail shrugs it off and tells Grace that the whole Radley family were friends of hers but she has now lost contact with them. It’s a tribute to the butterfly effect - what major consequences and echoes can be produced by a series of minor events in the past. I read Small Pleasures by the same author earlier this year and absolutely loved it so it was an easy decision to give this book a go. In fact after I finished reading I was prompted to turn back to the beginning and examine the first 60 or so pages to make all the connections. Abigail Jex never expected to see any of the Radley household again, and thought that she'd banished the ghost of her life with them, and the catastrophe that ended it, but thirteen years later, a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken.

Abigail Jex, a thirty-something cellist playing with a provincial orchestra, is surprised when, at a reception after one of her engagements, she meets Marcus Radley (Rad) - a face from her past and someone she has not seen for thirteen years. It's not all comedy though - Chambers very movingly depicts Abigail's progression to adulthood, and the eventual weakening of her friendship with Frances Radley.

I thought the author did a good job of portraying the teenage Abigail's limited understanding of what exactly was going on in the family of her friend Frances, and I enjoyed everyone's assertion that Lexi was 'the normal one'. I wasn't glued to the book wanting to know what would happen next; instead I read it slowly as though savouring a good wine. In 1999, her novel Learning to Swim won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. She has a talent for creating characters who are not only lifelike and eccentric, but immensely believable, and who have stayed with me long after I closed the book. I also felt that Abigail let Rad off with way too much-I'm not sure I would have been that forgiving.

It’s a story about friendship and inter-family relationships and although the pace is fairly slow at times the author draws you in with her descriptive style of writing. A lovely, often very funny story about a girl cursed with an embarassing surname (Onions) and unhappy parents with a deeply suburban life style, who finds an escape from home by her friendship with the wildly bohemian Radley family.In dramatic contrast to her own conventional family, the Radleys were extraordinary, captivating creatures transplanted from a bohemian corner of North London to outer suburbia, and the young Abigail found herself drawn into their magic circle: the eccentric Frances, her new best friend; Frances' mother, the liberated, headstrong Lexi; and of course the brilliant, beautiful Rad. Clare’s writing makes me feel like I am there as the character, and therefore invested in what happens. After leaving primary school, she meets Francis and her very different and family, thrusting her headfirst into a lifestyle she could only have imagined before. I am so glad I did, I really enjoyed the story and the way events unfold from the perspective of Abigail, the main character.

What a carefully constructed and powerfully balanced novel this is: at the end I was descending the same steps I had walked up at the start. Some of the experiences of working for an eccentric, independent publisher in the pre-digital era found their way into her novel The Editor’s Wife (Century, 2007).I enjoyed it, although I found it rather long and it had what would now probably be described as a bit of a YA feel to it. On the other hand certain episodes seemed unlikely to me, even for the Radleys, in particular the scene which causes Rad to be so angry with Abigail. I did see a couple of the mini twists coming but that took little away from a thoroughly enjoyable book. Self-conscious introvert Abigail grows up as an honourary member of her friend Frances' chaotic household, where she takes pleasure in the excitement and spontaneity missing from her own family life.