In 2010 Penguin Books published Scenes from Provincial Life and Scenes from Married Life for the first time in an omnibus edition in their series Penguin Decades as a landmark of storytelling from the 1950s.

While there is broad agreement that the suppression of Scenes From Metropolitan Life, which was to be the volume linking Scenes from Provincial Life and Scenes from Married Life was damaging to both the continuity of the novel series and Cooper's career, the publisher has not set that right. It would have been logical to publish the first two or first three volumes from the series in one omnibus edition, instead of just volume 1 and 3, as they were originally published in that order. Restoring the original order would have given old readers the satisfaction of inclusion of that second volume, while to new readers the book would probably more balanced.

In the current omibus edition there is the hiatus which leads to the broken story-line which leaves readers wondering what has become of the characters Myrtle and Tom (from volume 1), while the new, main secondary character Robert is not properly introduced.

The introduction by Nick Hornby is flimsy, insincere an merely repeats what everyone can find on Wikipedia for themselves.

Scenes from Provincial Life is great, and well worth reading. The subsequent Scenes from Married Life is rather disappointing. The presentation of Scenes from Provincial Life: Including Scenes from Married Life as a seminal work for the 1950s seems dubious.

However, readers who are interested in the genre of the somewhat humourous, literary novel serial, may read William Cooper's 5-volume series in conjunction with E.M. Delafield's five-volume series The Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930), The Provincial Lady Goes Further (1932), The Provincial Lady in America (1934), The Provincial Lady in Russia: I Visit the Soviets (1937) and The Provincial Lady in Wartime (1940). With Delafield's last volume leaving off in 1939 / 1940 and Cooper's first starting around that same time, Cooper's series seems a continuation of the genre. At least both authors describe an apparently autobiographical series of episodes, centred around an aspiring author and their daily affairs, Delafield writing from the female point of view, abd Cooper from the male point of view. Both books share a suble, wry and ironic humour. But wheras Delafield's writing is still firmly rooted in the late-Edwardian writing tradition, Cooper's writing feels quite modern. He also writes much more frankly and openly about sexuality, and people's psychology.

The genre is continued with works by Paul Gallico's series following the exploits of Mrs Harris in four volumes, in Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1958), and subsequent titles in the series Mrs. 'Arris Goes to New York (1960), Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Parliament (1965), and Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Moscow (1974). ( )