Katrina Robinson

I am writing this in the members' lounge of a flying club. Sprawled around on the leather Chesterfields are men — mostly — of varying ages who are either in the process of acquiring a pilot's licence, or training others to acquire one. I don't fit either of these categories so what am I doing here? This is one of the things I'm choosing to do differently in Part 2 Of My (Love?) Life.

The response I love Coleen's straightforward admission when she writes: I’ve been in the same position. A woman with an unfaithful husband. Twice. She goes on to explain the tricks our wounded self-confidence plays on us and I agree with her: Women are often the opposite of arrogant, so we have a tendency to come up with imaginary reasons to blame ourselves when a partner cheats on us. A cheating man on the other hand has a tendency to come up with imaginary excuses to make himself feel less guilty.

'Are women better off today than they were 50 years ago?' It's the question lying behind Charlene Wexler's novel Farewell to South Shore and one which I thought I knew the answer to when I was eighteen but which I now think is more nuanced. So I was eager to see if I could reach any conclusions through the eyes and experiences of the novel's protagonist, Sherrie Paul, a woman maturing through mid-20th century America to the Millennium.