Author(s): Tim Dowling

General

The much-loved Guardian columnist asks what it takes to make a husband, and looks to his own married life to provide the answer.* *This book should in no way be read as a guide to a successful marriage. Twenty years ago Tim Dowling and his wife embarked on a project so foolhardy, the prospect made them shudder. They agreed to get married - with the resigned determination of two people plotting to bury a body in the woods. Two decades on they are still together, still married and still, well, he hesitates to say happy, if only because it's one of those absolute terms, like 'nit-free', that life has taught him to deploy with caution. But at the time of writing, Tim could confidently admit to being 100 per cent nit-free. This is the story of how Tim ended up here, along with an examination of what it means to be a husband in the 21st century. Is he a good husband? In a word: no. But Tim is prepared to outline his husbandly failures with jaw-dropping and, perhaps ill-advised, honesty, so the curious reader can pick up some handy hints on how to make a marriage as nit-free as Tim's.