Cloud Chamber, by Clare George (Sceptre)
Hardcover (17 February, 2003); ISBN: 0340824212
Paperback (October 13, 2003); ISBN: 0340824220
Available from Amazon.co.uk

Publisher's Synopsis
Walter is a young Australian who comes to England (falling in love with a beautiful and feisty schoolteacher on the boat journey) to follow his dream of being a scientist at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge. There he falls under the spell of the charismatic scientists involved in splitting the atom and the other experiments that eventually led to the building of the atomic bomb.

In 1945, in London, an older, disillusioned Walter struggles to keep his marriage together and to come to terms with what he - as a pacifist - saw as a terrible betrayal by his mentors and his best friend Alan Nunn May. Meanwhile, Nunn May is back in London, keeping a low profile and being shadowed by a rather inept and unenthusiastic spy.

Walter is the only person Alan has seen since his return and so unwittingly, he and his family fall under surveillance too. The story that unfolds is an engrossing tale of friendship and betrayal, of forgiveness and enduring love and of the dangerous burden of scientific knowledge.

Review in Guardian Books (March 8, 2003)
"A half-decent novel on a scientific theme has all the novelty of snow in July. In fact, Clare George's sepia-tinted account of the characters and issues surrounding prewar nuclear physics and the development of the bomb has a double relevance..."
full review...

Clare's second novel is:
The Evangelist, by Clare George (Sceptre)
Hardcover (January 17, 2005); ISBN: 0340824239
Paperback (October 10, 2005); ISBN: 0340824247
Available from Amazon.co.uk

Publisher's Synopsis
A passionate and fascinating tale of one man's life-long quest for truth, and of the damage he unwittingly wreaks on those he loves.

In 1978, Max Oldroyd, evolutionary biologist and author of a bestselling popular science book explaining evolution to the masses, embarks on a triumphant book-tour of the US - only to find himself humiliated, ridiculed and almost broken by a series of 'debates' in the Bible Belt staged by people trying to ban the teaching of evolution in schools.

He returns to London a changed man, fired by a hatred of religion and all those who preach it. This is to cast a shadow over his life, and, over the years that follow, will tear his marriage apart, damage his career, shape the lives of his children, and finally destroy his relationship with his stepdaughter Cass - the girl who, above all, needed to believe in the power of nurture over nature.

Now, as he approaches the end of his life, Max is determined to set down his memoirs, to sift facts from opinion, and use his experiences to 'prove' certain scientific truths. But Max is about to learn that the facts most difficult to reach are those we have to learn about ourselves.

See more about Cloud Chamber and The Evangelist at the website of her literary agency