Camberwell Beauty is the story of Anna, a butter-side-up sort of woman; Anna's neighbour Jo, the kind of woman who can ask for a pound of sausages without the butcher smirking; their sons and daughters — nancy-boy Jed, snivelling Henry, prepubescent überbitch Georgina and fat Pandora; Jo's husband Nigel, a terrible one for casual sex; and Anna's husband 'good old Chris', the worm that turns.

From ageing to in-laws, affairs to weight problems, Jenny Eclair's debut novel brilliantly dissects the problems of urban living.

The first time the Cunninghams and the Metcalfs went on holiday, Jed was just a toddler and Anna was very frightened that he might drown. Jo had hired a villa in the north of Majorca with a pool, which was marvellous but meant, of course, that there had to be an adult lifeguard on duty at all times.

Nigel was also rather worried about going to Majorca; he’d been to Magaluf as a teenager and the pal he’d gone with had returned home with genital warts. Genital warts were one of Nigel’s phobias, they had to be burnt off and can re-occur for life. To Nigel, the mere mention of Majorca conjured up sexually transmitted disease. His suspicions were confirmed when they boarded the plane at Gatwick, only to find it was full of Sun-reading common types, demanding lager on a 10am flight - and that was just the women. Nigel thought they all looked like they were riddled with genital warts.