All the Hopeful Lovers

No one is perfectly happy, but when are we happy enough? Laura is a happily married mother of two until an ex-lover contacts her. Suddenly passion and excitement are rekindled, but how much happiness has she a right to expect, and what about the pain she would cause to achieve it? Unknown to Laura, several others in her Sussex village are also living with their own unresolved crises, where every decision they take has an impact on those around them.

Belinda wistfully reflects how much better at sex she is now than when she was in her twenties. She's thought about taking a lover, but ultimately could never do that to her husband Tom. So imagine her despair when she discovers he's having an affair... Nicholson casts an unflinching eye on men's attitude to sex, women, love and family life. This is our own familiar world rendered pacy, funny, emotionally on the button and hugely entertaining.

Summer, 1942: Kitty, an army driver stationed in Sussex, meets Ed, a Royal Marine commando, and Larry, a liaison officer with Combined Ops. She falls instantly in love with Ed, who falls in love with her. So does Larry. Both men go off to war, and Ed wins the highest military honor for his bravery. But sometimes heroes don’t make the best husbands. Motherland follows Kitty, Ed, and Larry from wartime England and the brutally tragic Dieppe raid to Nazi-occupied France, India after the war, and Jamaica before independence.

Kitty is loved by two best friends: Ed, a handsome hero, and Larry, not-so-handsome, not-so-heroic, but a good, kind man. Larry adores Kitty from the start, but Kitty finds Ed difficult to resist. When both men go off to war, Ed wins the highest military honour for his bravery. But sometimes heroes don’t make the best husbands.