Saturday 8 September was a lovely, warm, sunny day – as early September often is. That afternoon, at St Peter’s, Acton Green, Noreen and I were married.

L-R: Victor (Best Man), Maeve (Chief L-in-W), me, Noreen, Meg (L-in-W), Jilly (L-in-W)

The wedding was fairly low-key and quiet; unlike many of today’s extravaganzas: neither Noreen’s mother, nor my parents had much money, and we had none. It was sufficiently low key that we walked to church, early-19th century style – we lived only a couple of hundred yards round the corner – and had the small reception (lots of food, lots of wine; no band/disco) in the church hall.

Although we had known each other for 3-4 years, we’d not met regularly before the previous October when we started going out. We got engaged at New Year, moved into a flat together in the May … and here we were getting married “in under a year”. The omens can’t have been good, especially as we had a fairly rocky first couple of years: both trying to build careers, living in a fairly depressing rented flat, and “negotiating the rules of engagement”.

But here we are 40 years on. Still married; older, maybe wiser, better off; but not as healthy (who is at nearly 70?). To commemorate the day I’ve posted 40 Marriage Quotations on the website.

To this day we have no idea how we’ve achieved it! Every year we look at each other and ask “How did we do it?”. And we still don’t have an answer. Probably we never will. Which could well be why we’re still together 40 years on.

Many and more!