In her forties, Polly Ferrison wonders why her world seems so stale. She no longer loves her husband Neville and her once beautiful relationship with her adult daughter Rose seems like a distant dream. She fears attending the annual luncheon with her college friends since all of them are successful and happy.

However, Polly is more observant this year and soon realizes that her four friends are all going through some form of a mid-life crisis. Jane, who always loved being single, wonders if it is time to give up her free spirit lifestlye for a loving long-term relationship. Candida struggles with her passion for one man while her mode of living and her spouse hang in the balance. Mary provides motherly comfort to the very depressed Vanessa, who is coming out of a disillusioning affair and into the role of a reluctant parent. However, Polly discerns that beyond Mary's motherly instincts, she possesses little substance a state that makes her seem inconsequential. Polly, who is becoming a novelist, understands that her life is no better or worse than her friends and she must mend the fence with her beloved Rose.

TRIALS OF FRIENDSHIP is a novel that is often times humorous and just as often sad. The five women are all interesting characters and the support cast add to the feel of angst shared by the middle aged British middle class. Hazel Hucker is a spectacular author, whose British distaff BIG CHILL is well written and fun to read.

Harriet Klausner