Claire Daverley

Claire Daverley was born in 1991 and has been writing stories ever since she was six years old, inspired by art and film and her many trips to the library. After graduating with a degree in Fine Art from The University of Oxford, she began a career in publishing, writing about books by day but penning her own by night, on trains, and in the light of the early mornings. She has spent most of her life in Hertfordshire, but currently lives in Scotland with her husband and spaniel.

Her debut novel, Talking at Night, was snapped up by Penguin Michael Joseph in the UK and Pamela Dorman Books in the US, as well as twenty two languages to date. It has been shortlisted for Book of the Year in the Debut Fiction category at The British Book Awards 2024.

TALKING AT NIGHT (Michael Joseph - UK, Pamela Dorman Books - US)

Shortlisted for Book of the Year - Debut Fiction at The British Book Awards 2024

Will and Rosie meet as teenagers. They're opposites in every way, but over secret walks home and late-night phone calls they become closer, destined to be one another's great love story.

Until, one day, tragedy strikes and any possibility of them being together shatters.

But that tragedy - and their history - is what will connect them forever...

Praise for TALKING AT NIGHT

A Waterstones Best Book of 2023

July pick for Fearne Cotton's Happy Place Book Club

July pick for Grazia Book Club

One of Independent's 10 Best Summer Reads 

Nominated for the LovelyBooks Community Award for Romance in Germany

‘A beautifully observed, tender, grown up love story with characters you really care about.’ Jojo Moyes

‘If you love really gentle, beautiful and very cleverly written love stories, then this is the book for you.’ Fearne Cotton

‘A beautifully written tale of the messily imperfect course that love takes.’ Mike Gayle

‘Quietly devastating, entirely beautiful, bruising and hopeful. In a world of compromise, Claire Daverley has created a perfect thing. Talking at Night takes its place amongst my all time favourites. I implore you to read it. I’ll never forget it.’ Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End

'A delicious treat. Prepare yourself to sink into this one, to be torn between reading fast and slow.' Lottie Hazell, author of Piglet

‘So incredibly beautiful.’ Harriet Evans

'This book kept me up all night! It’s everything I want from a love story, the will they won’t they, the romance, but also, there is the truthfulness of reality woven into it. This isn’t just escapism, it is also full of heartbreak and human failings and mistakes. I loved it.’ Kate Sawyer, author of The Stranding

‘A captivating read, tracing the intimacies of romantic and non-romantic relationships alongside life’s upheavals, capturds through Daverley’s distinct style which casts the story in a stream of consciousness, dream-like prose.’ Bookseller

‘Writing that is laced with the quiet devastation of Sally Rooney. One of the very best literary love stories I’ve read. Utterly spellbinding.’ Julie Owen Moylan, author of That Green Eyed Girl

'This is a summer read for the die-hard romantics out there who love a book that takes them right back to the heady days of first love - and can break your heart just as irreparably.' 17 Degrees

‘Talking at Night is one of those rare books you don’t want to end. Beautifully written, incredibly nostalgic, and utterly heartfelt.’ Katie Bishop, author of The Girls of Summer

'If #BookTok was more their speed, pick up Claire Daverley’s debut novel Talking At Night for them. It’s especially perfect for those with a Normal People-shaped hole in their hearts.' Glossier

'Daverley’s moving debut outlines a lyrical story of unspoken words and one unending love.' Kirkus

'Evocative, intoxicating and basically impossible to put down. Like Normal People, it’s a love story which feels so achingly real that you miss the characters when you stop reading.' Bobby Palmer

'A passionate, page-turning debut.' Daily Mail

'Compelling and propulsive, Talking at Night is an achingly beautiful novel about the people in our lives who change us irrevocably and who we will always carry with us, no matter what. Claire Daverley writes with elegance and grace as she mines the depths of human emotions. This novel will consume you.' Jill Santopolo, the New York Times bestselling author of The Light We Lost

'With shades of Sally Rooney, this is a lyrical, tender love story about two people, Will and Rosie, who meet as teenagers and seemed destined to be together until tragedy strikes.' Good Housekeeping

'The story of Will and Rosie is a classic love story in every sense, and yet, in Claire Daverley’s hands, it felt entirely new. The characters are completely alive from the very first page, and how I rooted for them! Talking at Night could be titled Reading at Night, because I was awake through the night, turning these pages.’ Mary Beth Keane 

‘A real love story.’ Heat

'A classic will-they-won't-they in the vein of David Nicholls, this novel is impossible to put down. A story of secret night meetings and calls, sunrises and bonfires, quiet moments and heartbreaking missed opportunities. Impeccable dialogue and wonderful characters that will stay with you for a long time.' Constanza Casati, author of Clytemnstra

'I absolutely adored Talking at Night--it should be on everyone’s must-read list. Beautiful, poignant, and heart-wrenching.' Carley Fortune

‘Have your tissues handy for Talking at Night by Claire Daverley, a raw, extraordinary novel in which every scene aches with emotion.’ Real Simple

‘Debut novelist Claire Daverley’s descriptive powers make even the ordinary seem significant, as things often do when life is emotionally charged…As much as Talking at Night is a love story between two people, it is also a meditation on family and the vagaries of grief when bonds are broken. Daverley’s sensitive novel evokes a line from the Edmund Spenser poem ‘The Ways of God Unsearchable’: ‘For there is nothing lost, that may be found if sought.’ Through all their losses and misfires, Will and Rosie keep looking, and readers will keep turning pages, hoping that these two characters will find each other at last.’ BookPage

‘This is the perfect love story for the summer. It feels like a light breeze right after dinner. The atmosphere that surrounds the two young people falling for each other, growing distant, and learning what love is really about is Daverley’s greatest strength. She crafted the perfect vibe for these characters to inhabit.’ Debutiful

'Spellbinding, beautiful, lyrical and tender, Talking at Night is a dazzling debut. I loved every word and was left longing for more.' Rosie Walsh, New York Times bestselling author of The Love of My Life

'Talking at Night is a transcendent marvel. Daverley's debut is aching and tender. . . the lush, complex characters reminded me of Sally Rooney's work.' Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters

‘Talking at Night is a masterful and authentic depiction of true love in all its messy, complicated and gut-wrenching glory. Will and Rosie are the perfect, imperfect star-crossed lovers – their story had me enthralled from the start.’ Ruth Hogan, Sunday Times bestseller 

'Talking at Night is a love story, certainly, but it’s much more than that. I was rapt. I highly recommend this wonderful novel.' Ann Napolitano

'Clever, beautiful and romantic. An absolute gem.' Rachel Marks, author of Hello, Stranger

‘Gorgeous lyricism and a rare freshness of voice.’ Laura Barnett, the author of The Versions of Us

'Beautifully written and keenly felt. It’s romantic but not a romance, for this novel is authentic to its bones. Beguiling, but also painfully honest, and that’s a rare and winning combination indeed.' Reese’s Book Club pick Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is.