Then and Now is a mostly light-hearted novel of 80,000 words.

Gifford and Alice, married for over twenty years, have one of their rare arguments, after which she goes to visit her sister and he goes on a road trip in his small sports car called Sally. Gifford visits six households and in all except one he discovers something isn’t quite right and he is able to solve or mitigate the various problems.

Gifford is continually arguing or pleading with his GPS system, Sally. His argument with Alice gradually thaws over the week, shown by initial lack of communication developing into messaging and finally phone calls.

Chapters near the end introduce Harry Alembert (known as Bert), a train driver, and his wife Rose. Alice is on her way home in a train. Gifford is hurrying to join her, driving through heavy rain and wind. There’s a train crash: Alice, who was standing up to grab her suitcase, is flung through the air. Bert gets the train to screech to a halt, but not before it’s smashed through a tiny sports car stalled across the tracks.

It would be too much of a spoiler to say here whether Alice was okay, whether the sports car was Sally (and whether Gifford was inside it), and indeed whether anyone was hurt as a result of the crash. You can probably guess most of the answers, given that the style of the book is humour interspersed with occasional situations or events designed to reflect realistic everyday problems. But if you are indifferent to the idea of spoilers, you can read a full summary of Then and Now  here.

In short, Then and Now is a ‘feel good’ story that should leave a smile on your face.