Everything Will Be All Right.

Everything Will Be All Right is another of Tessa Hadley's older books (although it is new to me). 

The story starts when Joyce, her sister and widowed Mother move to the south of England to live with her Mother's sister, Vera, and her family. Over the next fifty years we see Joyce become a Mother and then a Grandmother when her daughter Zoe gives birth to Pearl. 

It's a very similar format to Clever Girl, Tessa Hadley's most recent book. Each chapter gives us a snapshot of the characters and their lives as the story progresses and as in Clever Girl whilst the chapters are interconnected each one could stand alone as a short story. 

The characters are all very realistic and there are small details perfectly captured throughout that make the settings and eras so believable.

On one level this can be read as a basic 'family saga' but there is much more to it than that. Not only does it cleverly shows how lives and attitudes have changed since the end of the war (particularly the lives and roles of women), it is a commentary on the English class system and social change. It also shows how complex and different the relationships between mothers and daughters and family dynamics can be. 

It's very well written. Thought provoking and entertaining, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Recommended.