Love and Marriage — Margaret Thornton

Three friends discover that married life doesn't always run smoothly in this absorbing family saga.

1957. Newly-wed Val Walker is looking forward to starting a family. Her best friend, the previously flighty Cissie, is expecting her second child, content to settle down to full-time motherhood. Their mutual friend Janice, having just got engaged to boyfriend Paul, is looking forward to wedded bliss.

But life doesn't always turn out as one would expect. Val doesn't find it as easy as she'd expected to fall pregnant with her longed-for first baby. When Cissie's husband Walter starts taking an interest in a new female colleague, jealousy rears its ugly head. Janice is consumed with guilt at leaving her widowed father and young brother behind in Blackpool to start a new life in Yorkshire. Are the three friends' marriages strong enough to survive these unexpected obstacles?