Love? In A Cottage

Love? In a Cottage is the story of two middle-aged people from very different backgrounds who meet as the result of an advertisement placed in the lonely hearts section of a national newspaper. Marlene Sugden is a secretary working in London whose life has changed very much for the worse in a few months. Firstly her father, who she has loved and cared for over many years, dies then her best friend marries and immediately emigrates to Australia and, as a final straw, Marlene’s boss retires and her new boss is a snappy and difficult man. Marlene dearly wants a husband and a home to care for and in her desperation, she places an advertisement in the Evening Standard. “Lonely unmarried woman, good cook and homemaker seeks kind-hearted, single middle-aged man with view to matrimony if suited”. Deep in the Herefordshire countryside, Donald Evans sits reading a two-day-old newspaper as he eats his meal of baked beans straight from the tin. His eye is caught by Marlene’s advertisement. He is single, mid-40s and kind-hearted if it does not cost him anything. Donald hunts out a piece of notepaper, sharpens his pencil and replies to Marlene’s advertisement.

Ann was born in Watford Hertfordshire and grew up in and around Watford. Ann was educated at the Watford Grammar School for Girls before completing a secretarial course and working in Watford and London as a secretary. At the age of 22 Ann left home to travel overseas through Africa and Asia before returning to England to marry and settle down. Wanderlust struck again when the children were small, and Ann and her husband emigrated to South Australia. They returned to England after seven years to introduce their new son to the family and to live and work in Herefordshire for 18 months before returning to South Australia. Since her husband’s death, Ann has resumed her love of travel exploring outback Australia, travelling on the Trans- Siberian Railway and visiting South Africa and England.