This month I've chosen two novels which both look at ideas about family, marriage and masculinity, though in very different settings. The pairing is accidental: when I started reading them I had no idea they would complement and contrast with each other in such interesting ways. A Lady and Her Husband by Amber Reeves examines the lives of a wealthy middle-class family, while Gwyn Jones's Times Like These tells the story of a mining family during the 1926 General Strike.  A Lady and Her Husband , Amber Reeves (Persephone Books, 2016, first published 1914) Mrs Heyham lives a comfortable life focussed on her home and children, provided for by her husband James, a successful businessman. Her eldest daughter is married, and her son, a partner in the business, is absorbed in his own concerns. When her youngest daughter, Rosemary, announces that she is engaged, her mother realises her life has lost “its purpose and meaning”. Her family decide that some new interest must be fo...