In politically correct middle-class Cambridge at the tail end of the 1980s, Freya's nouveau riche parents are, well, different. Millie, her mum, doesn't have a maternal bone in her body. Self-obsessed, driven, and never far from a glass of Chardonnay, she seems to care more about her career than she does about Freya.





Hugh, her dad, made his money as a property developer, but when the recession bites he slumps into what proves to be a terminal malaise. And things get even stranger when Edward moves in and it slowly dawns on Freya that he may sleeping in beds other than his own...



Welcome to Life is a coming-of-age story with a twist - a sparkling, darkly humorous and provocative novel about family dysfunction, friendship and finding love in all the wrong places.



Alice de Smith was born in Cambridge, educated at Oxford and now lives in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she writes for Live Theatre. She has written for publications including The Times, the Mail on Sunday, andCosmopolitan. Welcome to Life is her first novel.