As one who has thrice read Family Law in the Twentieth Century: A History,1 I can confirm that it repays re-reading. The meticulous research, fascinating insights, and sheer detail make it an engrossing and rewarding read as well as an outstanding scholarly contribution. Moreover, at a time when family law in this country is on the brink of fundamental change, it is salutary to stand back and consider the way in which family law has developed. 'Family law' in 1900 was organized around a particular concept of the family, with marriage being the key determinant of status and rights. The legal boundaries of the family were static, with few exits through divorce,2 and no additions save through birth or marriage.3 A century later, marriage remains the sole trigger for many, but by no means all, rights, and divorce is available virtually on demand. The legal disabilities previously imposed on wives are no more than a faint memory, although inequalities in the ownership of assets within marriage still persist.4 The parent-child relationship has become the central organizing principle of family law: almost all of the discriminatory effects of birth outside marriage have been removed and we talk of responsibility towards, rather than rights over, children.5 (Some fathers, it is true, are reinvigorating the language of rights-but they are less confident than their Victorian predecessors that their claims will be heeded.6) This year alone has seen Parliament debating bills to allow transsexuals to marry in their reassigned sex,7 and to provide a new model for regulating relationships-the civil