Sometimes Kay Thorpe finds she has become two different people: the writer at her happiest when involved in the world of books and authors; and the housewife, turning her hands to the everyday needs of husband and son.
She likes cooking, for instance, but she finds that it can be an irritating interruption when she's preoccupied with work on a novel, so the quality of her efforts in the kitchen tend to be a little erratic.
Unlike Flora Kidd and Robyn Donald, who showcase Scotland and New Zealand in their stories, Kay Thorpe gives her readers a taste for a myriad of locations.
As a result, stories set outside England have an underlying subplot that explore how a newcomer from Britain can come to accept making a home for herself with one of the long-time British descendants settled in Canada or South Africa.
In Storm Passage (1977) and Time out of Mind (1987), there is mention of how islands in the South Pacific and in the Caribbean came to be under private ownership by a British descendant.
While Keir in Temporary Marriage (1981) founds his fortunes as an engineering whiz in Sydney, Australia halfway around the world from his native English village.
In Never Trust a Stranger (1983) a forty-something lead actress Emily worries that casting her daughter Gemma in the same Broadway production with herself may bring out the advances in her age.
Somewhere in her books Kay Thorpe throws in that British men think nothing much of their middle-aged wives, who still yearn for the love and romance of their not so far away youth.
A charismatic Ailsa in Full Circle (1978), knowing that her looks will not support her in the long run, has a Swiss bank account to fall back on for her olden days.
As Liam in Bitter Alliance (1978), and Cal in Wilderness Trail (1978) grapple with movements in their own lives that test them with these two faces of women, Logan in Never Trust a Stranger (1983) must decide if marriage is meant for him.
In Full Circle (1978), Sara, in an unsteady galley kitchen, dishes out a savory coq au vin albeit with too much wine, which still draws Steve's complement.
This story along with others such as Not Wanted on Voyage (1972), and Storm Passage (1977) opens a window to life aboard oceangoing watercraft, be it in a ketch powered by sails or in an ice-breaking whaling ship.
She also uses the sport of horse show jumping in Rising Star (1969), the circus world in Sawdust Season (1972), Corporate takeover in Dividing Line (1979), the international game of snooker in Win or Lose (1986), professional writing in This Side of Paradise (1979) and Skin Deep (1989), professional sculpting in Floodtide (1981), restoration of historical homes in Opportune Marriage (1969).
Interwoven in the love stories, there are these varied interests shared by the main protagonists that lend a richness to the quality of the plots and educate the readers no less.
Kay Thorpe explores many factors contributing to successful male-female intimate relationship, love and finally marriage and her writer's voice comes across strongly in each of her novels.
Her narratives give the hero many advantages over the heroine, a trait found in stories of other renowned series novelists such as Flora Kidd, Charlotte Lamb, Robyn Donald just to name a few.
In This Side of Paradise (1979), Ryan responds to the same query by saying if two people are of the same mind, then one becomes superfluous, Gina's tentative answer to which is that one can agree to disagree.
Cynicism notwithstanding, Nick in Storm Passage (1977) tells Tara that it is not enough that she makes herself available but that she needs to be all woman in order to let their sexual chemistry work for the benefit of their marriage.
An older Annette in Sawdust Season (1972) tells young Toni that men are not the marrying type; that they only choose to do so when they find a woman whom they can't get out of their skin.
That men take an exception to this is clear from Ross in Dividing Line (1979), who confirms to Kerry that the latter wants to hold off sex until she has a ring on her finger and their signature on a paper.
A lack of understanding of the divergent currents driving men and women easily transpire into mistrust so much so that in The Man from Tripoli (1979), despite the security blanket provided by her marriage, Lisa elects to leave Bryn because, without marital fidelity, she finds sexual love unconvincing.
The married men in Kay's stories show steadfastness in their commitment and no amount of ambivalence from their wives can shake them out of the will to make the marriage work.
In an opposite situation when Brad in Opportune Marriage (1969) suspects Lisa of infidelity, he confronts her directly but his emotions go flat when he asks whether she is in love.
In Full Circle (1978), the couple's marriage falls apart when Steve is unable to tolerate Sara's infidelity on the basis that sex aside, she must have been emotionally attached to the other man.
While Brad realizes what was lacking in him, Sara convinces Steve in Full Circle (1978) that her past indiscretion was an attempt at stark revenge for which she had no emotional attachment and that she reserved her deep love for him only.
Having established a marital relationship on the basis of sexual compatibility and fidelity, the couple's personal knowledge of each other's virtues and vices come only with time.
Kay charts the progress of desire, from curiosity to intimacy, and then writes about how sexual chemistry can blossom into tenderness, which she reveals in Floodtide (1981) is love.
Although Kay makes her heroines accept love for its own sake as an unconditional emotion, the result is not humiliation but empowerment as the men reciprocate with sensitivity and depth.
Therefore, in Timber Boss (1978), and in Bitter Alliance (1978) after women have made their confessions of love, men contribute to it with cryptic but pregnant remarks such as there is no going back and don't say any more to seal their relationship.
To exorcise this ghost, they both act on impulses reaching impromptu decisions that voice deeply held sentiments, which they push out at the time from any detailed analysis.