Tested by miserable in-laws, half-hearted sex, temptation, alcoholism, noisy neighbours and teenage children who are both all-knowing and wilfully blind.

ECONOMIST: Books of the Year: Page turners | The

Every domestic arrangement that works reasonably well is stretched out over a web of understandings about who does what, and for 24 years -- three houses, that is, and two children and two extended families and a long, noisy, generally good-natured parade of teenagers and exchange students and visiting nephews and whole soccer teams clumping in and out -- I have been the one who cooks.

CNN: Husband quietly captures the kitchen