Chamberlain, Mary – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:14:14 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Chamberlain, Mary – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 Fenwomen https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/fenwomen/ Thu, 11 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=51289 ‘Full of dignity, courage and humour, and as fresh and insightful as the day it was written, FENWOMEN is a vital portrait of rural women’s lives – not only as they were lived in the 1970s in one Cambridgeshire village, but in the generations before it, all over the country, and reaching forward into today’s world, too’ MELISSA HARRISON

Mary Chamberlain’s vivid social and oral history of an isolated village in the Cambridgeshire Fens was the first book ever published by Virago. Told through the voices and lives of women, whose memories span over one hundred years, it provides a unique portrait of a working-class, rural community where intermarriage was common, most inhabitants lived all their lives in the village, and until the middle of the twentieth century a single family owned almost all the land.

50th anniversary edition – now a Virago Modern Classic with a new introduction by Alexandra Harris

]]> The lie https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-lie-2/ Thu, 20 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=34161 A gripping new novel by bestselling author Mary Chamberlain

]]> TWO SISTERS, ONE DANGEROUS LIE,
AND A DEVASTATING TRUTH.

Joan, once a singing star of the 1940s and 1950s, now ekes out a lonely, impoverished existence – until a chance encounter promises a comeback concert and an album. Her sister Kathleen is a successful medical researcher who has been offered the directorship of a prestigious institute in Los Angeles as she contemplates the recent break-up with the love of her life.  

Over the years, Joan and Kathleen draw closer together until a figure from Joan’s past threatens everything they’ve built. As the sisters excavate the lies that bind them, a more profound truth threatens to drive them apart.  

]]> The Forgotten https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-forgotten-2/ Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=23076 Heart-wrenching historical fiction from bestselling novelist Mary Chamberlain

]]> ‘Beautifully crafted, elegantly written, with characters to root for – I loved this heart-stopping tale.’ Saskia Sarginson, author of  The Bench

How do you rebuild a life from the ashes of despair?

London 1958. Twenty-six-year-old Betty Fisher is one of the first to join the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and attend its inaugural meeting, where she meets John Harris. Posted to Berlin towards the end of the war, John has been left traumatised by his experiences in Germany. And, as his initial admiration for Betty shifts into an overwhelming need to protect her, he is plagued by flashbacks and fantasies. John’s increasing fragility brings to the surface Betty’s own memories. And soon her past, too, begins to unravel…

]]> The Forgotten https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-forgotten/ Thu, 02 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=16216 Heart-wrenching historical fiction from bestselling novelist Mary Chamberlain

]]> ‘Beautifully crafted, elegantly written, with characters to root for – I loved this heart-stopping tale.’
Saskia Sarginson, author of The Bench

How do you rebuild a life from the ashes of despair?

London 1958. Twenty-six-year-old Betty Fisher is one of the first to join the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and attend its inaugural meeting, where she meets John Harris. Posted to Berlin towards the end of the war, John has been left traumatised by his experiences in Germany. And, as his initial admiration for Betty shifts into an overwhelming need to protect her, he is plagued by flashbacks and fantasies. John’s increasing fragility brings to the surface Betty’s own memories. And soon her past, too, begins to unravel?      

]]>