Coupledom

The ads were already showing as he clambered along and in their patchy glare he loomed and ducked and apologized, and was a clumsy intruder in a world of snuggling coupledom.

More coffee is consumed, a movie date is arranged, coupledom achieved and, naturally, nuptials performed.

Their hard-won, second-chance coupledom had never been to me more gently touching, every bit as much a symbol of 21st-century Britain as the sound of a gospel choir, or a Hindu prime minister reading from the Epistle to the Colossians.