Margaret Drabble's third novel is often seen as representative of the age in which it was written  the swinging 60s. But for the narrator, Rosamund Stacey, who admits to being "a Victorian" when it comes to sex, the 60s are not particularly swinging. A novel that focuses on "life's little ironies" centres on a particularly cruel one: Rosamund's only sexual encounter results in her becoming pregnant.

She loses her virginity to George, a man whom she does not know very well and, what's more, initially thinks is gay. Meanwhile, she is dating two other men in a peculiar arrangement whereby she avoids having to sleep with either because they each believe she is sleeping with the other. It is hard to tell whether Rosamund has a laissez-faire attitude to relationships or is just naive, as in all other respects she is extremely intelligent  she's a doctoral student completing a thesis.

Drabble does not romanticise the reputed sexual liberation of women in the period. Instead, we follow Rosamund as she deals with the consequences of becoming pregnant: her agonies about whether to self-abort, her progress through the maze of the NHS, the social stigma she endures on becoming a single mother. Her very English desire not to cause offence or put people to trouble sometimes grates, but on the whole she's a believable and sympathetic character who is transformed during the novel from being fiercely independent to having an equally fierce love for her child.

The final scene describes a chance meeting with George, still unaware that he's a father. It's not exactly a happy ending, as Rosamund is still alone and learning to live with the burden of a child. But in its realism, it's very much in keeping with a novel that provokes as much today as when it first came out.