The Millstone

Margaret Drabble’s affecting novel, set in London during the 1960s, is about a casual love affair, an unplanned pregnancy, and one young woman’s decision to become a mother. Rosamund Stacey is young and inexperienced at a time when sexual liberation is well on its way. She conceals her ignorance beneath a show of independence, and becomes pregnant as a result of a one night stand. Although single parenthood is still not socially acceptable, she chooses to have the baby rather than to seek an illegal abortion, and finds her life transformed by motherhood.