Books about the normal lives of normal people in the UK/Ireland

…with all their problems, their shittiness, their suffering but also all the small moments of beauty. No great heroes or villains or chosen ones, just life. Contemporary or recent historical aka anything late 19th century onwards would be great.

(I’m travelling around a bit right now and realised I’ve never gotten a good look past the rose pattern umbrellas and tartan blankets of my mother’s middle class anglophile magazines.)

Books of this kind I’ve enjoyed in the past include Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, The Offing by Benjamin Myers (though that was a bit more idealised than I usually prefer – still a nice story), Dubliners by James Joyce, and I’m just starting The Blackwater Lightship by Colm Toibín which I hope will turn out to fit this type of book.