The middle years of Kate Armstrong are caught between parents and children and are free of neither Relentlessly good-natured, surprisingly successful, lapped by the affection of her children and friends and untidily folded into the clutter of her overflowing house, Kate is now suddenly in her forties. Margaret Drabble takes Kate's predicament - when Kate is forced to make a reconnaissance of the middle ground of her life - and turns it into a wise, witty and ebullient novel.