Each month best friends Claudia, Sal, Ella and Laura meet for drinks, celebrating 45 years of friendship. They know each other and their lives inside out. Their ambitions, careers, husbands, lovers, children, hopes, fears, the paths taken and not taken . . . Sal had spent a lifetime building a career as a successful magazine editor but she hadn't banked on the one thing over which she had no control. Claudia loved her urban existence - the thought of the country sent shivers down her spine. But, as many women will know, other people's needs always seem to come first . . . Ella is ready to try something different. But she hadn't bargained on quite such a radical change . . . Laura succumbed to the oldest cliche in the book. But it didn't make it any easier to accept. Outside of the supportive world of their friendships, they find their lives are far from what they expected - the generation that wanted to change the world didn't bargain on getting old. A truthful, provocative, funny and inspiring novel, The Time of their Lives, asks hard questions about what the world offers women as they get older and finds both moving and joyously uplifting answers in the different ways the four friends celebrate their coming of age . . .