Swimming Lessons

FROM THE COSTA AWARD-WINNING, WOMEN&rsquo;S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUND 
 
Twelve years ago Flora's mother Ingrid disappeared, vanishing from a Dorset beach, presumed drowned. Everyone - especially her sister and father Gil - believes Ingrid is long dead. Everyone, except Flora. So when she hears that her father has had an accident, and is insisting that he saw his wife, Floral rushes home. 
 
But the answers she seeks are nowhere to be found - only further questions. 
 
Who did Flora&rsquo;s father actually see that day? Why is his house filled with towering piles of books? And might the letters hidden within them hold the truth behind her parents&rsquo; extraordinary marriage? 
 
&lsquo;Thrilling and transporting&rsquo; Sunday Times 
 
&lsquo;An eloquent tale of squandered love and seething secrets&rsquo; Sunday Express 
 
&lsquo;A compelling portrait of a complicated, unconventional marriage, and of flawed humanity, with all its secrets, silences and deceits. Excellent&rsquo; Mail on Sunday 
 
&lsquo;A beautifully told story of motherhood, marriage, and infidelity&rsquo; Good Housekeeping

A compelling portrait of a complicated, unconventional marriage, and of flawed humanity, with all its secrets, silences and deceits. Excellent.

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. Her first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children.

Twelve years ago Flora's mother Ingrid disappeared, vanishing from a Dorset beach, presumed drowned. Everyone - especially her sister and father Gil - believes Ingrid is long dead. Everyone, except Flora. So when she hears that her father has had an accident, and is insisting that he saw his wife, Floral rushes home. 
 
But the answers she seeks are nowhere to be found - only further questions. 
 
Who did Flora&rsquo;s father actually see that day? Why is his house filled with towering piles of books? And might the letters hidden within them hold the truth behind her parents&rsquo; extraordinary marriage?

Bitter Orange

FROM THE COSTA AWARD-WINNING, WOMEN&rsquo;S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUND 
 
Frances Jellico is dying. A man who calls himself the vicar visits, hoping to extract a deathbed confession. He wants to know what really happened that fateful summer of 1969, when Frances - tasked with surveying a dilapidated country house - first set eyes on the glamorous bohemian couple, Cara and Peter. She recalls the relationship they forged through sweltering days, lavish dinners and elaborate lies, and the Judas hole through which she would spy on the couple. 
 
Were the signs there right from the beginning? 
Or was it impossible to avoid the crime that split their lives open like rotten fruit? 
 
&lsquo;Compulsive &hellip; A latter-day Daphne du Maurier&rsquo; THE TIMES 
&lsquo;Clever, compelling &hellip; A rewarding slow burn&rsquo; PAULA HAWKINS 
&lsquo;Bewitching, otherworldly &hellip; full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller&rsquo; SCOTSMAN 
&lsquo;Sinister and suspenseful, this gothic novel simmers with guilt, lust and envy&rsquo; MAIL ON SUNDAY 
&lsquo;A darkly smouldering, superior psychological thriller&rsquo; DAILY MAIL

Nothing is quite what it seems in this engrossing, moreish novel about a naïve woman and the hedonistic couple who beguile her

Rich and compelling. Fuller is an accomplished writer

Reminds me of JL Carr's A Month in the Country, Daphne Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, and Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Incredibly atmospheric, vivid, and intriguing. I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't reading a forgotten classic.

A stealthy shocker about thwarted desire. A sinister, slow-burn tale that saves its most heart-wrenching revelation for last

A twisty, thorny, darkly atmospheric page turner about loneliness and belonging

Gabriel Tallent, author of My Absolute Darling

As haunting as tuberose and delicate as a scalpel

Heady, claustrophobic . . . makes for perfect heatwave reading. Echoes Penelope Lively's Booker-winning Moon Tiger, Anita Brookner's Look At Me, and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger

This darkly smouldering, desperately sad, superior psychological thriller contains shades of Zoe Heller's Notes On A Scandal

It is rare for me to put down a novel and then immediately consider rereading it to see what cleverness I might have missed. This time, though, I am tempted.

Atmospheric. Rich, clever and very readable.

A delicate and disturbing read, alive with love, lust, envy and guilt

A sinister story that considers the terrifying lengths people will go to escape their pasts. In the vein of Shirley Jackson's bone-chilling The Haunting of Hill House, Fuller's disturbing novel will entrap readers in its twisty narrative, leaving them to reckon with what is real and what is unreal. An intoxicating, unsettling masterpiece.

Bitter Orange reads like an assured, old-school, du Maurieresque classic. It's an atmospheric page-turner that speeds us towards a bloody climax of shocks and surprises

Sinister and suspenseful, this gothic novel simmers with guilt, lust and envy

Bewitching, otherworldly . . . full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller.

A compulsive page-turner. Fuller creates an atmosphere of simmering menace with all the assurance of a latter-day Daphne du Maurier

A rich, dark pressure cooker of a novel that simmers with slow heat and suppressed tension

Dark, beautifully written. It reminds me very much of Ian McEwan's Atonement, with similar slow-build tension and claustrophobic atmosphere

An exquisite and skilfully written novel, which worms its way under your skin while Frances's loneliness seeps off every page

Fuller is a master at summoning the atmosphere of a heady, hot summer that thrums with tension

Multi-layered, lush, twisty and brilliantly clever

A smart creation from a skilled writer: a heady psychological novel that builds its layers carefully to allow gradual revelations and stomach-churning surprises

Full of complex characters and narrative richness

Loneliness, guilt and atonement are at the heart of the atmospheric Bitter Orange

Naturally engaging and elegantly written. Fuller is an amply gifted storyteller

With shades of Brideshead and Manderley, Claire Fuller's atmospheric third novel plays a satisfyingly unpredictable game with reader expectations. Prepare to be meticulously unsettled and horribly enthralled

Full of dark foreboding. Claire Fuller is a dazzling storyteller

Cannily releasing clues on the way to an explosive finale . . . The lush setting and remarkable characters make for an immersive mystery

Elegant, atmospheric, vivid

Beautifully written, with echoes of Barbara Vine and Daphne du Maurier

Andrew Taylor, Spectator Books of the Year 2018

Sumptuous and sinister with gothic hints, this is a compelling tale of blurred friendships

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written four previous novels: Unsettled Ground, which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, and Bitter Orange. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.

Frances Jellico is dying. A man who calls himself the vicar visits, hoping to extract a deathbed confession. He wants to know what really happened that fateful summer of 1969, when Frances - tasked with surveying a dilapidated country house - first set eyes on the glamorous bohemian couple, Cara and Peter. She recalls the relationship they forged through sweltering days, lavish dinners and elaborate lies, and the Judas hole through which she would spy on the couple. 
 
Were the signs there right from the beginning? 
Or was it impossible to avoid the crime that split their lives open like rotten fruit?

The Memory of Animals

FROM THE COSTA AWARD-WINNING, WOMEN’S PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF UNSETTLED GROUND 
 
'A stunning piece of speculative fiction' The i 
 
'A haunting novel about love, survival and everything in between ... One to get excited about' Stylist, Best Modern Dystopia 
 
--- 
 
Humans are useless at learning from their mistakes. We just have to keep making new plans. 
 
When Neffy wakes up from an uneasy sleep in a hospital bed, nothing is as it should be. There is no food, and nobody to tend to her. The city streets outside her window have fallen silent. She doesn’t know it yet, but a debilitating new virus is sweeping the globe, and the world will never be the same again. 
 
Feverish, confused, and wary of the strangers trapped inside with her, Neffy finds solace in her own memories of the past – even the memories of the mistakes that led her here. 
 
But as the days turn into weeks, it is clear that Neffy will have to make a choice. How do you choose between a past that has already disappeared forever, and a future you can't begin to imagine? 
 
--- 
 
'Unsettling, moving and thoughtful, with horror lurking at the edges, this is a subtle, elegant novel. Claire Fuller is a huge talent' Lucy Atkins, author of Magpie Lane 
 
'Compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!' Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

Following her award-winning novel Unsettled Ground, Fuller has returned with a piece of stunning speculative fiction

A haunting novel about love, survival and everything in between ... one to get excited about

A thought-provoking and utterly compelling novel from a writer we always look forward to reading

Haunting and unsettling, moving and thoughtful, with horror lurking at the edges, this is a subtle, elegant novel. Claire Fuller is a huge talent

Claire Fuller is such an interesting and original writer and she has produced another literary page-turner ... Compulsive and thoroughly convincing. Terrific!

Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures

Fuller is an excellent writer and she neatly conveys boredom as well as dread (no mean feat)

Stunning ... A page-turning, topical, edge-of-your-seat story that resonates with the reader on an emotional level, and leaves them thinking about it for a long time afterwards

Louise Morrish, author of Operation Moonlight

A gripping page-turner, this apocalyptic tale is given warmth and depth by the portrayal of Neffy, a young woman with a complicated past to which she returns to escape the horrors of the present

A taut and atmospheric read, an exploration of captivity, sacrifice and survival in a post-apocalyptic world ... Asks important, resonant questions of life in extremis ... Fuller writes brilliantly ... The superb ending ties everything together with a moving, tragic cohesiveness

A woman once undone by empathy now finds that it could be her salvation in Claire Fuller's stunning postapocalyptic novel ... Sobering and evocative, The Memory of Animals is a novel about who we choose to be when the lights go out

Wonderful, sorrowful, haunting, tender, elegiac

Barney Norris, author of The Undercurrent

Claire Fuller is my favourite story-teller. I read The Memory of Animals in one sitting, swept up by the thriller-like pace and the sheer joy of reading a great story. Yet, in the book's aftermath, I was haunted by Neffy's fumbling humanity in the face of loss and fear, and how courage isn't always obvious - even to those who find it. Fuller's books come in at the eyes, but they settle right behind the heart.

A riveting exploration of agency, allegiance and choice

Fuller's latest work is thought-provoking and unsettling, and somehow strikes a further warning note to a world already in crisis

Claire Fuller is a fascinating writer, and The Memory of Animals is further evidence of her powers. Her story is one of survival, but her subject is humanity itself. With immense skill, she shines a light on the dark heart of our existence - the beauty and brutality of human behaviour. This is an unforgettable novel

Kathleen MacMahon, author of Nothing But Blue Sky

A story you'll both recognize from our collective recent past, and a thrilling departure from our reality

Good Housekeeping USA, The Best Books of 2023 so far

Full of jeopardy and strangeness but also laced with Fuller's trademark generosity and compassion. A startling and satisfying book

Fuller excels in examining the everyday moments at the heart of a life ... A memorable meditation on how the human struggle to survive in captivity is not so different than that of our animal kin

A haunting novel of second chances set in a near-future pandemic ... Intricately structured ... The entwined pain and pleasure of memory is at the heart of Neffy's story, as is the hard work of establishing trust and finding forgiveness, particularly for oneself. This is a pandemic novel, yes, but one that radically transcends the label

Brave, unflinching and beautiful

Beth Underdown, author of The Witchfinder's Sister

Claire Fuller strikes the perfect balance between beauty and melancholy

The way she writes (with empathy but never sentimentality) moves my heart

A creeping tale of isolation and the dangerous allure of memory

[A] post-Covid psychological thriller ... takes faintly distubing turns through grimly familiar territory to suggest that what makes us heroic, or not, hinges on unexpected things

Compelling ... A riveting, don't-miss account of what some may see as the reality to come; long-time Fuller readers will relish this completely engrossing story, which questions what we value most

Compelling ... A timely read ... Fuller is on strong form in evoking the terrors faced by those who are not just marginalised but entirely forgotten by society

There's a haunted elegance to Fuller's vision of a fallen world ... Sensuous

Lit Hub, 28 Novels You Need To Read This Summer

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has written four previous novels: Unsettled Ground, which in 2021 won the Costa Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Woemn's Prize for Fiction, Our Endless Numbered Days, which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, Swimming Lessons, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award, and Bitter Orange. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband.

Humans are useless at learning from their mistakes. We just have to keep making new plans. 
 
When Neffy wakes up from an uneasy sleep in a hospital bed, nothing is as it should be. There is no food, and nobody to tend to her. The city streets outside her window have fallen silent. She doesn’t know it yet, but a debilitating new virus is sweeping the globe, and the world will never be the same again. 
 
Feverish, confused, and wary of the strangers trapped inside with her, Neffy finds solace in her own memories of the past – even the memories of the mistakes that led her here. 
 
But as the days turn into weeks, it is clear that Neffy will have to make a choice. How do you choose between a past that has already disappeared forever, and a future you can't begin to imagine?

Winner of the Costa Novel Award 2021

Unsettled Ground

Her strongest yet... a powerful, beautiful novel that shows us our land as it really is: a place of shelter and cruelty, innocence and experience

Dark, brilliantly observed and ultimately a tale of love winning the day.

An intriguing, moving novel that will make you question assumptions you have about modern life

Tracy Chevalier, author of 'A Single Thread'

Superb...deservedly longlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction

A moving portrait of a family struggling against time. This book is ultimately about redemption-about the unexpected importance of neighbours, lovers, and friends, and the ways in which we can re-envision our lives for the better

Lucy Tan, author of What We Were Promised

So sharply, so utterly brilliant that I found myself holding my breath while reading it, dazzled by Fuller's mastery and precision.

Lauren Groff, author of 'Fates and Furies'

With sensitivity and intelligence, Fuller unpicks the relentless complexity of the modern world

'The way she writes (with empathy but never sentimentality) moves my heart'

Fuller is excellent at description, and capturing the twins' awkward interactions with the world. The fate of the illiterate and weak-hearted Jeanie once she loses everything that is safe is particularly unsettling

It's merciless in its observation of casual cruelty and merciful in its observation of casual kindness and family love

Unsettled Ground is another sly psychological treat from Claire Fuller, who just keeps on getting better with each book

These memorable characters will worm their way into your head and heart and the descriptions of the landscape are beautiful.

An atmospheric thriller that's both heartbreaking and heartwarming

Tender, unusual... these memorable characters will work their way into your head and your heart

Fuller's prose is darkly elegant, her eye for character astute and humane, and her sense of place vividly atmospheric -- here is a writer of great skill, sensitivity and subtlety

Claire Fuller strikes the perfect balance between beauty and melancholy, in this relevant and powerful exploration of isolation and life on the fringes of society

Unsettled Ground shares with Fuller's previous works themes of closely guarded family secrets and homes built upon shaky foundations

This literary thriller is as moving and poignant as it is compelling

These memorable characters will worm their way into your head and heart the descriptions of the landscape are beautiful

Claire Fuller

Every parent lies. But some lies are bigger than others&hellip; 
 
In the summer of 1976 eight-year-old Peggy Hillcoat is taken from London by her survivalist father to live in a cabin in a remote European forest. When they arrive he tells Peggy that her mother and the rest of the world are gone. 
 
Now the two of them must scratch a living from the earth: trapping squirrels, foraging for berries, surviving winter as best they can. But it is easy to lose you way in the forest, to lose yourself. How long will Peggy trust her father's story? How long can you stay sane when the world is lost? And what happens when you stop believing in everything?

Claire Fuller

Books by Claire Fuller

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter