About 20% into the book I was ready to abandon it, because the characters were so annoying, and their conversations even more so, but after reading the mind-boggling memoir Educated by Tara Westover, I needed a chick litty palate cleanser, and somehow this did the job.

What really kept my attention was the place where it all happened; in my own neighbourhood where I spent my early childhood and later, the more formative years - NW5 Belsize Park & Kentish Town. Oh, it's always good to go home, even if it's just on the page. :-)

A patchwork (or do we say "blended" these days?) family are in their first year of living together in Belsize Park, and while Julia (47) and her American partner, James (55), seem to be a perfect match and are madly in love, there is trouble in paradise, thanks to Julia's 16 year old daughter, Gwen, and James' son, Nathan (18?), who hate each other. James' daughter Saskia (who is at college in the US) is sweet and accommodating but too far away to be an everyday peace maker.

The most fun, interesting and, in fact, likeable characters are actually Gwen's paternal grandparents, Philip and Iris, whose son Daniel had died of liver cancer 6 years prior. Whenever they show up (or in fact, James' overbearing ex-wife, Pamela is on the scene), the novel is at its most alive and entertaining, but the parent-teenager relationships are tedious and infuriating. With those sort of precious and overly attentive parenting approaches, I am not surprised that the next generation boasts so many kids with "entitlement issues".

At the end of the novel I wasn't sure which generation The Awkward Age referred to; the moody, egotistical teenagers, the torn, tired middle-aged parents, or the grandparents who had their own set of issues to deal with. It would appear that even in your 70s one can't simply sit back and enjoy the "golden years".... potentially there is awkwardness at every stage of life. Crumbs.