On the face of it, there was no reason to believe that Hannah and Humphrey Drayton were not happy and content in their marriage. However, all was not as it appeared, and after years of tyranny and loneliness Hannah's only relief from her husband's overbearing company is his absence on a Thursday evening, when he plays bridge with a group of acquaintances.
In despair, and despite Humphrey's ridicule, Hannah takes refuge in her writing, and it is a visit to the office of a publisher that changes her life. There she meets David Craventon, a man she soon to thinks of as her Thursday friend. Taking advantage of her husband's absences, she and David would meet and talk, and visit the theatre or cinema, activities she had never enjoyed with her husband.
But when Humphrey finds out about her 'other life', his thoughts of revenge are hamstrung with a secret of his own. And when an event occurs that is to destroy all his prospects, he plans a bitter retaliation for what he regards as his wife's betrayal.
With its deceptively simple theme, The Thursday Friend is a remarkable novel, one which displays Catherine Cookson's consummate ability to explore human relationships.
