This book examines the lives and repartnering behaviour of former spouses and co-habitees, groups pivotal to recent marital change. Focusing on contemporary Britain, it examines these people's experiences of being single, their orientations towards past and new relationships, and their self-identities in the context of a couple-orientated society.
'Their volume manifests a sharp concern for the actual context of contemporary Britain in which people live. This context can be charaterized as a cultural vacuum: these scarcely are clear-cut and well-established societal guidelines for appropriate behaviour; together with the declining salience of traditional ideas and expectations regarding the life course, and their lack of fit with formerly partnered people's lives, repartnering people have many difficulties to give sense to their lives and to work out concrete practical lifestyles to survive in intimacy.' - The Journal of the Study of Marriage