This is Paradise, By Will Eaves

The middle-class Alldens live in a house in Bath. This novel opens in the Sixties with parents Emily and Don expecting their fourth child, and ends in the present day as their offspring face the decline of the older generation.

Reminiscent of Tessa Hadley's domestic dramas, Eaves's unshowy narrative illustrates how family members are both thwarted and protected by the unit that spawns them.

His writing is full of enjoyable apercus: "The sound of the Hoover knocking against the banisters was Emily's way of informing Liz that she's now been in her room too long."