For the past 12 years on a weekly basis, readers of the Press & Journal have been given a candid and often humourous insight into the life of the newspaper's arts critic Roddy Phillips and his family. The column was motivated by the sudden shock of moving to the country and the need to share everyday experiences involving floods and infestations of protected species, amongst other dramas. The Familiar - A Life in Weekly Instalments is a collection of domestic confessionals and makes the commonplace and the familiar both remarkable and enduring.