Laura Sale, the star of Raffaella Barker's fifth novel, Green Grass, is pretty fed up. Simply put, Laura has forgotten how to have a good time. "Somewhere on the way to becoming a 38-year-old mother of adolescents, a wife manqué for 14 years, she has left having fun behind." Fun has been overtaken by the preoccupations of work and family. Inigo, her conceptual-artist husband is attractive, but "he's always been demanding and egocentric". Her twins, Dolly and Fred, are mostly loveable--except that Fred is constantly campaigning for a pet and Dolly is behaving "like a temperamental opera diva". There seems no space left for Laura's needs.

Fuelled by nostalgic memories of summer holidays in Norfolk, Laura thinks that country life will solve all her ills, she'll have "space to breathe", she may even ditch Inigo and his outrageous artistic demands for the man she was going to marry 20 years ago. Guy is now a farmer, who has a sideline in natural bath products. It seems like the ultimate rural idyll, and as far away from the arty London scene as you can get.

Raffaella Barker is not afraid to tell the truth about the infuriating nature of relationships with lovers, children, siblings and pets. But she never lets cynicism or bleakness take hold; instead her gaze is clear and hopeful. Laura's wistful dreams are treated with wry, good humour, and some healthy reality. Yes, the countryside is airy, but it is also muddy and wet, and home to rampaging goats and aggressive ferrets. Green Grass is gleeful, irreverent and touchingly wistful, a laugh-out-loud account of getting a life. With a pond and blackberry bushes, natch. --Eithne Farry