The Washington Post and Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Jonathan Yardley placed On Chesil Beach on his top ten list for 2007, praising McEwan's writing and saying that "even when he's in a minor mode, as he is here, he is nothing short of amazing".

[2] In July 1962, Edward Mayhew, a graduate student of history, and Florence Ponting, a violinist in a string quartet, are spending their honeymoon in a small hotel on the Dorset seashore, at Chesil Beach.

Edward accuses her of lying during their marriage vows, and is further angered when Florence suggests that he could sleep with other women to relieve his sexual desires.

A year after the annulment, ruminating on Florence's suggestion that he could sleep with other women, Edward realises that he no longer finds it to be insulting, though he remains unwilling to re-connect.

He muses that one's life can be changed by simply doing nothing: Florence had loved him deeply as she had walked away, and wanted nothing more than for him to call out so that she could turn back and reconcile.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview, McEwan admitted to taking a few pebbles from Chesil Beach and keeping them on his desk while he wrote the novel.

On 17 February 2016, it was announced that Saoirse Ronan, who previously played Briony Tallis in the film adaptation of McEwan's Atonement, would star in On Chesil Beach.