Novelist Robert Edric did not have a happy childhood. My Own Worst Enemy (Swift Press, £14.99; Tablet price, £13.49) describes the challenges of growing up in a tough, working-class district of 1960s Sheffield, in a home dominated by a vain, bitter, alcoholic father. This is a painfully honest, almost Orwellian account of a struggling family expected to meet the every need of their demanding father, who never lets them forget that he deserved better in life.