Cohabitation: Law, Practice and Precedents

Third edition; Helen Wood, Denzil Lush and David Bishop; Family Law; £75. Hardback plus CD-ROM

It is many years since firms of solicitors had divorce, or even matrimonial, departments. We now have family courts, family law and family departments. According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of first marriages in the UK fell from 459,000 in 1971 to 286,000 in 2001; the proportion of non-married women under 60 in Great Britain who were cohabiting rose from 13% in 1986 to 28% in 2002; the percentage of children born out of wedlock rose from 10% in 1980 to a staggering 41% in 2002, of which 64% were jointly registered by parents living at the same address.