Harriet Scott Chessman

“How happy I felt, those first few weeks of Edgar’s visit, before I gave birth to Jeanne in December.”

“Filled with precise, loving observations of human nature, The Beauty of Ordinary Things is a slender, wise triumph of a novel, exquisitely distilled.”

“Russell folds her into him, on a bed in his little flat in London, on his night pass, the windows blacked out, German bombers flying overhead…”

“I hold a pretty, empty cup and gaze at the ribbon of blue sky.”

“A picture came to her, absurd and magnificent, of an angel swinging down from those high trees, holding a bunch of marigolds.”

“Chessman’s memory play mixes poetry, slang and hurt with fierce brilliance.”