Claire is born in Portsmouth, and Margaret and Alan begin adjusting their Fareham flat and daily routines around their first child.

Margaret and Alan leave the Fareham flat for a three-bedroom house in Havant, taking on a mortgage and room to expand.

Michael is born in Portsmouth, and Margaret adjusts to caring for a second child alongside three-year-old Claire.

Margaret returns to paid employment as a part-time clerical assistant at Eastbrook Junior School.

A low-cost family camping holiday in the New Forest begins with a borrowed frame tent and competing ideas about how to put it up.

The family takes its first overseas holiday, flying from Gatwick to Majorca for a week in a modest apartment.

A visit to see a litter of kittens ends with the family bringing home a tabby named Mabel.

Margaret’s recurring pain is diagnosed as gallstones, leading to surgery and an unwanted demonstration that home and work can continue without her.

The family’s first home computer takes over one end of the dining room and creates new uses, instructions and arguments about whose turn it is.

Margaret returns to Weymouth with Alan, Claire and Michael and tries unsuccessfully to identify the boarding house from her childhood holiday.

Margaret and Alan move from their Havant house to a smaller bungalow in Emsworth as their children become more independent.

Claire marries Simon after organising the day with the same attention she gives to most family arrangements.

Margaret meets her first grandchild and discovers that Claire has her own clear instructions for handling a newborn.

Margaret’s first smartphone proves useful, irritating and capable of turning a reply into an accidental telephone call.

Elliot’s first Christmas brings a new baby, Ruby’s practical objections and the family’s first Christmas after Joan’s death.

During the first lockdown, family visits move onto video calls with delayed speech, poor camera angles and regular contact.

Margaret records the practical first weeks after Alan’s death without repeating the private details of his final morning.

Margaret begins organising family dates, memories and privacy decisions into the Life Archive.

Margaret records her present routine in Emsworth, including family visits, gardening, local history and continued work on the Life Archive.