Disputed Land by Tim Pears

Oxford author Pears is on top form in this powerful coming-of-age story, narrated by middle-aged Theo, looking back at his teenage years, and a rare family Christmas with his grandparents in an old house on the Welsh borders.

Theo’s parents are Oxford academics and accuse him of talking Cherwell School ‘gansta’ lingo, but in fact he has inherited their genes and is a thinker rather than a doer, a careful observer of the adult world.

His mother is a university head of department, while his father works ‘up the hill’ as a humble lecturer at Oxford Brookes.

Grandma is difficult at the best of times (Theo’s parents have a sort-of-argument in the car on the way through the Cotswolds about why they have agreed to spend Christmas with her). When they arrive, she flies off the handle more erratically than ever, with diatribes about how humans are ruining the planet. Her environmental worries are well-grounded, but the reader guesses that something more is amiss, long before 13-year-old Theo does.

We are not disappointed as Pears cleverly unravels a web of family conflicts during a Christmas from hell.

Theo looks back at his teenage self from a future dystopian world in environmental ruin, measuring the lives of his father, his entrepreneurial uncle and lesbian aunt as he ponders the course of his own. Would it have been better to be a man of action, to have tried to avert climate disaster?

My favourite characters from a strong comic cast are Theo’s technology-obsessed twin cousins, Xan and Baz. Another cousin, Holly, is arty and loves photography. Xan says he does, too. “Who do you like?” he is asked.

“Kodak,” Xan replies. Baz prefers Agfa, and the twins happily swap technical information before finally deciding that Cibachrome is best.