A radical revision of existing ideas about the popularity, legal treatment and perceptions of cohabitation between 1600 and 2010.

Rebecca Probert is Professor of Law at the University of Warwick. She has taught family law for over a decade and published widely on both contemporary family law and its history.

1. Introduction; 2. Fornicators: the punishment of illicit sex; 3. No name: law, morality and precedent; 4. Unmarried wives in war and peace; 5. Living in sin: concerns and changes; 6. 'Stable illicit unions': cohabitation and the reform of divorce law; 7. Common-law wives: the 1970s and the creation of a myth; 8. Live-in lovers: trying to get back to basics; 9. Partners: New Labour and neutrality; 10. Conclusion.