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:

·         Chloe and Jimmy, colleagues from years ago: he finds that Chloe is suffering from dementia and helps, at least in the short term, by performing a karate kata with her, which her muscle memory remembers

·         Paul (his nephew), Elena and their daughter Tiffany: he discovers that Tiffany has an ‘unsuitable boyfriend’ and helps her to sever their relationship

·         Arianne Hopwood, B&B owner: whose husband has left her and she has no other visitors when Gifford turns up. She tries and almost succeeds in seducing him

·         Judith (his daughter), her boyfriend Mason and 4 y.o. twin daughters: Judith’s husband left her years ago and now she’s fretting over whether to get together with Mason. Giffford gives ‘dadly advice’ that she probably should. Judith and Gifford see off a gang of young boys who have been terrorizing an elderly neighbour

·         Rahini and Steve (old university friends): where he finds that Steve has been diagnosed with but successfully treated for prostate cancer. Both R and S unload pent-up emotion on Gifford. He talks frankly to Rahini about his argument with Alice, which he realises by now is pretty insignificant.

·         Tommy (old school friend) and Xiaoxin: Gifford discovers to his surprise these two are perfectly well and have no need of his help or advice.

Chapters near the end introduce Harry Alembert (known as Bert), a train driver, and his wife Rose. Bert is worried Rose is planning to leave him. Alice, having helped her sister as much as she can, 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 turns out that Alice has a broken foot, but is otherwise okay. The car wasn’t Gifford’s (and the driver wasn’t in it). Rose wasn’t planning to leave Bert – she’s discovered she was pregnant after some uncertain tests and was attending various clinics. The book ends with Gifford and Alice (now reconciled), going next door to have dinner with their neighbour, who had invited them at the start of the book.

The style of the book is humour interspersed with occasional situations or events designed to reflect realistic everyday 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.

Then and Now is designed to be a ‘feel good’ story that should leave a smile on the reader’s face.