Married life has become ten times more popular in the last week.

A cartoon taking a tongue-in-cheek look at matrimony has become a smash hit on the internet.

Visitor numbers to the Married-Life.com website have risen from 200 a day to more than 2,000 a day after a high-profile listing on Candian 'best of the web' directory Suite 101.

The cartoon story of two 30-something couples - Shazz and Simon and Trace and Arthur - and single mid-20s friend Sarah was created by David Bailey, 43, from Forest Row, and illustrated by his nephew, Nik Bird, 29.

The pair first began publishing their comic strip on the internet in March last year and the cartoon had been gathering a small loyal following.

David said: "We didn't know what had happened when we logged on to suddenly find 6,000 emails from around the world instead of the 20 we normally get and our statistics monitor showed more than 8,000 hits.

"We desperately tried to track the source of our success and found we had been rated a top five site by Suite 101."

The figures rose to 12,000 and many visitors became hooked, promising to return each week to read the next instalment.

The cartoon's two married couples are fictitious but Sarah is a line drawing version of Sarah Hedley, a sex advice columnist and female editor with lads' mag Maxim.

Sarah's antipathy to a life of cosy coupledom has given her character the chance to spice up the cartoon and talk openly about sexual relationships in the 21st Century.

She said: "Married-Life.com deals with the day-to-day trials of married life which is a subject central to most of our lives that other web entrepreneurs have overlooked.

"It was only a matter of time before the site received the recognition it deserved."

Sarah's virtual pres-ence has confused some of the cartoon's online following.

David said: "We have biographies on the site and people can write to any of the cartoon's characters. The fact Sarah is a real person has led to many people believing the other characters are living and breathing too.

"Shazz's problem page has actually had quite a few successes in helping people turning to her for advice."

www.married-life.com