Alice Chadwick - Dark Like Under

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have Alice Chadwick coming to The Heath Bookshop to talk about her book, 'Dark Like Under'. 

Alice and Claire from The Heath Bookshop will be in conversation for around an hour. There will be a book signing afterwards.

Alice Chadwick grew up in a small town in Britain in the 1980s, a place she returns to in her fiction. She studied English at Cambridge and was a student on City Lit’s fiction Masterclass. Her work explores friendship, family and the relationship between people and the natural world. Her 2025 debut novel, Dark Like Under, was published by Daunt in the UK and Biblioasis in the US/Canada. It was one of the ‘best books to look out for in 2025’ in The Independent and an editor’s choice in The Bookseller. Alice lives in London.

Dark Like Under:

A day in an English school in the 1980s unfolds in the aftermath of the death of a beloved teacher, Mr Ardennes. But while students and teachers grapple with this sudden loss, normal life, as it must, continues. Lessons, flirtations, arguments. The clock ticks on.

At the heart of it all is Tin. Burning bright with defiance, feared and adored in equal measure – and potentially betrayed by best friend Robin and boyfriend Jonah. As the heat of the baking hot day intensifies, rivalries and hormones simmer, and old secrets surface.

Set against a backdrop of strikes and economic unrest, Dark Like Under is at the same time languorous with sun-soaked, rural beauty. Thrumming with life, this luminous debut captures the promise and risk of late adolescence and is a profound exploration of friendship, loneliness and grief.

Praise for Dark Like Under:

‘So specifically good on the emotional life of teenagers and the adults who interact with them, Dark Like Under is generous, deeply immersive and occasionally startlingly close to the bone.’ - Lizzy Stewart

‘Her descriptive powers are remarkable, in particular as, like an impressionist, she charts changes in the light . . . But Chadwick is not just good at surfaces: she is also capable of brilliant characterisation . . . We come to understand not just these characters, but also their families and the whole social history of the town. Social gradations are subtly portrayed . . . The book grows in power as it progresses, and the last couple of chapters are deeply moving and profoundly

sad . . . A novel of wonder as much as of pain.’ Times Literary Supplement

We look forward to seeing you. 

Catherine & Claire