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Learning to Swim

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Learning to Swim

By: Clare Chambers
Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
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Brought to you by Penguin.

From the highly-acclaimed author of Small Pleasures - longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021.

Abigail Jex never expected to see any of the Radley household again. 

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. 

Abigail thought she'd banished the ghost of her life with them and the catastrophe that ended it, but 13 years later a chance encounter forces her to acknowledge that the spell is far from broken....

©1998 Clare Chambers (P)2021 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Feel-Good
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Great plot and characters - Like all her books brilliantly told - I really enjoyed it. Read wonderfully !

The details used to make the story real.

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This is absolutely delightful - a gentle but absorbing story of a girl's obsession with an essentially dysfunctional but interesting family and the ripples that result from this relationship. I absolutely loved the narration and I listened to the whole thing in about two days. It reminded me a bit of I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith.
Clare Chambers is marvellous.

Wonderful coming of age novel

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Claire Chambers is fast becoming a favourite author of mine. Her ability to draw characters and events is so insightful and clever that the plot almost becomes secondary. Fantastic narration, a joy to listen to.

just brilliant

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Loved this, feeling nostalgic for those awkward teenage years. Great characters and Beautiful written and read.

Couldn’t stop listening

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The path of true love doesn’t run smooth for sure and this long story hits some rocks along the way. Reminding me of an old favourite ‘The Brother of the More Famous Jack’ by Barbara Trepido which runs along the same lines about a young girl being subsumed into a more lively and relaxed family than her own. Abigail and Frances become firm friends with Rad, Frances’s brother in the wings. A long listen, pleasurably narrated with plenty of wit and wisdom along the way plus one horrible shock to absorb. Wondering where ‘Half Moon Street’ is situated I imagined it as Friday Street in Surrey…

A meandering story with many twists and turns

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