Fractured and fractious families are at the heart of two witty contemporary morality tales. Amanda Craig’s The Lie of the Land traces the trajectory of the sexually unquenchable Quentin and his unhappy partner, Lottie, whose problems only escalate when they decamp to Devon’s remote arcadia.

Francesca Segal’s razor-sharp, The Awkward Age, tells of the fallout when two families merge in North London and civil war ensues.

Amanda Craig is a novelist, critic and short story writer. After a brief period in advertising and PR, she worked as a journalist for publications including the Sunday Times, Observer, Telegraph and Independent, winning both the Young Journalist of the Year and the Catherine Pakenham Award. She is the author of many acclaimed novels, including A Vicious Circle, In a Dark Wood and Hearts and Minds. She is a judge on the 2017 JQ Wingate Book Prize. Craig is currently working on her eighth novel, inspired by the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.

Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer and journalist. Her first novel, The Innocents, won the Costa First Novel Award, the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction and the Sami Rohr Prize.

Claire Armitstead is associate editor, culture, for the Guardian. She was previously their arts editor, and has been a theatre critic for both the Guardian and the FT. She presents the weekly Guardian Books podcast. She also makes regular appearances on radio and television as a commentator on arts and culture and takes part in live events across the UK and internationally.