First published in 1992, A Rather English Marriage tells of Roy Southgate and Reginald Conynghame-Jervi, who have nothing in common but their loneliness and their wartime memories.Roy, a retired milkman and Reggie, a former RAF Squadron Leader, are widowed on the same day. To assuage their grief, the vicar arranges for Roy to move in with Reggie as his unpaid manservant. To their surprise, they form a strange alliance, based on obedience, need and the strangeness of single life. Then Reggie meets Liz, a vibrant but near-bankrupt woman of irresistible appeal, while Roy and his son's family grow gradually closer. Marriage, it seems, however far from ideal, can be a great protector against isolation.

Two old men, one a wing commander, the other an NCO, meet at a hospital where both their wives are being treated as terminal cancer patients. The two men meet again at the cemetary. Everything about their lives is different - but from these meetings the two come together in companionship.