If you love books and you've got a bit of time between work or have the afternoon to nip out, then do, because best-selling writer, Claire Fuller will be appearing at Stroud Bookshop on Monday 29th February at 2.30pm.
And I tell you what, it will be worth the visit, because not only is Claire an amazing author, but her début novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won multiple accolades in 2015, with the book being selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club, and also becoming the winner of the coveted Desmond Elliot Prize for Debut Fiction.
Our Endless Numbered Days is the story of Peggy Hillcoat, who when she is eight in 1976, spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother’s grand piano. After a family crisis, which Peggy doesn’t fully understand until later, her survivalist father James, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. And so her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival and a tiny wooden hut that is Everything. But Peggy isn’t seen again for another nine years.
It’s a chilling novel, not only in its premise, but in the beauty and sheer flowing style of prose in which she writes. But what of Claire and her writing background? For Claire, the journey to becoming an author wasn't a straight forward line, in fact she came to writing only later on in life “For my first degree I studied sculpture at Winchester School of Art, specialising in wood and stone carving. I began writing fiction at the age of 40, after many years working as a co-director of a marketing agency.”
Claire, among her accolades, also has a Masters in Creative and Critical Writing from The University of Winchester, and you can see just how this has shaped her wonderful work. So what next for Clare? Well, with more book deals under her belt, she has another novel on the way entitled Swimming Lessons due to be published by Penguin in 2017, and sure to be a big hit, if her poetic prose is anything to go by.
So, with once again Stroud Bookshop showcasing not only another author for us all to meet, but one which The Sunday Times describes, of Fullers’ writing, as 'a singing simplicity that finds beauty amid the terror', never before has there been a time like it to stock up on our reading, meet an author, and all at the same time as supporting our local book store. Work or no work on Monday, the book love is definitely in the air.
Nikki Owen is an author and writer. Her début thriller, Subject 375 (Harper Collins), is out now. Visit her blog www.nikkiowen.wordpress.com or website www.nikkiowenauthor.com