For a writer, the 1980s bear rich, dark fruit. The social and political turbulence of the decade provides the perfect landscape for Claire Lynch’s dual-timeline debut novel A Family Matter, which alternates between 1982 and the present day. On the surface, it is the story of a father-daughter relationship. Heron – an elderly man deeply fond of rules and routine – has recently received a terminal cancer diagnosis, but rather than share it with his grownup daughter, Maggie, who now has a family of her own, he chooses to bear the burden alone. As we learn that Heron raised Maggie by himself, it’s clear this urge to shield his only child from harm is a continuous theme. There is no mention of another parent, just that Heron was divorced many decades ago; it’s only when Lynch takes us back to 1982 that we discover the true story.
When Maggie was a toddler, her 23-year-old mother, Dawn, met another woman at a jumble sale. It was a chance encounter, and they clicked. Hazel, a newly qualified primary school teacher, had recently moved to the town, and Dawn was flustered by Hazel’s obvious life experience, feeling that “her mouth was full of all the things she would say if she wasn’t too embarrassed to put herself into words”. Hazel is equally smitten, and as the intensity between the two women grows, it isn’t long before their friendship develops into a romance. A secret romance to begin with, not just because Dawn is married to Heron and her life is dedicated to their beloved Maggie, but because 1980s provincial Britain was far more attached to the idea of a nuclear family than it was to the concept of true love. “You wanted to collect the set, the wedding, the house, the baby?” Hazel asks. “I didn’t know you were allowed not to,” Dawn replies.
