Sambrook, Clare

PERSONAL: Married Andrew Jennings; children: two.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Sarah Ballard, PFD, Drury House, 34-43 Russell St., London WC2B 5HA, England.

CAREER: Journalist and writer. Telegraph, London, England, financial reporter.

WRITINGS:

Hide and Seek (novel), Canongate (Edinburgh, NY), 2005.

Also author, with husband Andrew Jennings, of The Great Olympic Swindle: When the World Wanted Its Games Back. Contributor to Mail and London Guardian.

Hide and Seek was translated into eleven languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Russian.

ADAPTATIONS: BBC Films optioned film rights to Hide and Seek.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Another novel.

SIDELIGHTS: British journalist Clare Sambrook is also author of the novel Hide and Seek. In the novel, a nine-year-old London boy named Harry Pickles tells of a school trip during which his little brother turns up missing. Harry suffers survivor's guilt and is jolted into the realities of adult life as he watches his parents' inability to cope. The novel follows Harry's account of trying to emotionally survive the tragedy. A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "a smart addition to the genre of fiction narrated by precocious children forced to grow up too fast—a nuanced take on a nightmare." Allison Lynn, writing in People, commented that the author "stays squarely within the endearing voice of her narrator and evokes lots of genuine emotion." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "plausible and at times compelling: a debut showing considerable technical accomplishment."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bookseller, February 4, 2005, review of Hide and Seek, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2005, review of Hide and Seek, p. 503.

People, August 22, 2005, Allison Lynn, review of Hide and Seek, p. 52.

Publishers Weekly, April 25, 2005, review of Hide and Seek, p. 35.