Happily Ever After: A Light-hearted Guide to Wedded Bliss

Having been married for 47 years, Fearnley-Whittingstall (The Good Granny Guide) must know a few things about keeping love alive. In this “collective testimony of experience,” comprising advice, literary excerpts, and quotations from friends, she broaches a wide array of topics, including delegation of housework and shopping, maintaining outside friendships, and avoiding (or coping with) infidelity. Using both real and fictional examples, Fearnley-Whittingstall investigates the trope of the terrible mother-in-law and advises how best to deal with a spouse’s difficult family. She recommends romantic gestures like writing love letters, and offers examples from William Wordsworth to his wife, as well as correspondence between John and Abigail Adams. Other literary references include James Thurber’s My Own Ten Rules for a Happy Marriage, Virginia Woolf’s thoughts on embracing the tedium of marriage, and Jane Austen on “marriages of convenience.” Less conventional sources—like a wildly chauvinistic marriage guidance pamphlet published by the government of Dubai, internet chat rooms, and newspaper columns—provide a welcome and sometimes startling change of pace. Fearnley-Whittingstall’s conflict resolution techniques are particularly useful: avoid “Red Card phrases” like “You always…” and “You never…”, remain civil, and “remember you love each other.” Her gender stereotypes are antiquated, but Fearnley-Whittingstall’s advice will still appeal to newlyweds and old lovebirds alike. Agent: Antony Topping, Greene & Heaton, Ltd. (U.K.). (May 7)