Clare Pollard – författare

'Inviting, stylish and candid ... Pollard's future, as a novelist, is very bright indeed' The i'Clever, warm, and funny' Sarah Moss, The Guardian'This isn't the first - and most certainly won't be the last - pandemic novel, but it might be the most brilliant' Daily Mail'I am sick of the future. Up to here with the future. I don't want anything to do with it; don't want it near me'It is 2020 and in a time more turbulent than any of us could have ever imagined, a woman is attempting to write a book about prophecy in the ancient world.Navigating the tightening grip of lockdown, a marriage in crisis, and a ten-year-old son who seems increasingly unreachable, she becomes fixated on our many forms of divination and prediction: on oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves and the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates.But in doing so she fails to notice the future creeping into the heart of her own home. For despite our best intentions - our sacrifices and our bargains with the gods - time, certainty and, sometimes, those we love, can still slip away ...Heartbreakingly relatable and achingly funny Delphi is both a snapshot and a time capsule, deftly capturing our pasts, our presents, and how we keep on going in a world that is ever more uncertain and absurd.'Delphi is a compact miracle of a book' Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock'Bold, brave and uncompromising, Pollard has found a way to write about the last couple of years which is both truthful and enjoyable to read, which I didn't think was possible' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Everyone is Still Alive'Dark and dangerous, disturbed and disturbing in equal measure - I loved it' Anna Hope, author of Expectation

Brought to you by Penguin. What is The Tiger Who Came to Tea really about? What has Meg and Mog got to do with Polish embroidery?Why is death in picture books so often represented by being eaten?Fierce Bad Rabbits takes us on an eye-opening journey in a pea-green boat through the history of picture books. From Edward Lear through to Julia Donaldson, Clare Pollard shines a light on some of our best-loved childhood stories and what they really mean, weaving in tales from her own childhood and her re-readings as a parent. Because the best picture books are far more complex than they seem - and darker too. Monsters can gobble up children and go unnoticed, power is not always used wisely, and the wild things are closer than you think. Sparkling with wit, magic and nostalgia, Fierce Bad Rabbits will make you see even stories you''ve read a hundred times afresh.

Brought to you by Penguin.''I am sick of the future. Up to here with the future. I don''t want anything to do with it; don''t want it near me.''This is a story about now.It''s a story about a woman, and the family she has made for herself. It''s about the dramas unfolding on our screens and behind the curtains of our homes in a world more turbulent than any of us could have imagined.But it''s also about before. And what comes next. It''s about the flames that have burned for centuries beneath the cracks that are opening now. About the Ancient Greeks, who sacrificed and bargained with their Gods; about prophets and oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves, and how time and certainty and, sometimes, those we love can slip away.It''s about the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates - and the answers that are coming for us whether we like them or not.Extraordinary, electrifying, irreverent and heartbreaking, Delphi is a mesmerising story of our pasts, our presents and our futures, and how we keep on living in a world that is ever-more uncertain and absurd.''Sexy, dark and dangerous, disturbed and disturbing in equal measure - I loved it'' Anna Hope, author of Expectation© Clare Pollard 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022