Women's courage is rather different from men's. The fact that women have to bring up children and look after husbands makes them braver at facing long-term issues, such as illness. Men are more immediately courageous. Lots of people are brave in battle.

People try much less hard to make a marriage work than they used to fifty years ago. Divorce is easier.

Rebecca is an example of how not to manage men. The rules of the game never change, it requires subtlety.

That image of the countryside being a threatening place still exists. People continue to resist the challenge of learning about aspects of life they don't understand.

My first husband would never make up his mind in less than five years, so I used to get him to think that whatever course of action needed to be taken was his idea. Then he'd go right ahead.

I was sent to a finishing school, which didn't last long when mother found out how badly chaperoned we were. Then I 'came out' before going to a domestic science school.

They may turn out to be a great disappointment, or perhaps they may be full of enchanting surprises.