Inhabitants

Elizabeth

Mid forties and mother to Simon and Joanne.  She has a PhD in English Literature from Manchester University with a special interest in seventeenth century poetry.  She tries to limit her time away from home as much as possible and has found great success in her writing and research much of which she can do in Cambridge. She is also independently wealthy, hence the large house.

Eileen

There has always been additional care for the children in the form of a nanny and then au pairs.  By the time they were ten and twelve Eileen, the 'housekeeper', came into the family and took on the (part) care of the children along with the house. By now she is really a surrogate grandma and is regarded as 'family'.  

She does most of the cooking for the family and organises the running of the house, employing a cleaner, gardener, window cleaner and any other services needed for the smooth running of a large home with frequent visitors.

Simon and Joanne

The children were babies when they came to this house, so they don't remember any other home.  They are now thirteen and fifteen and love their life in Cambridge and the house they live in.

Annelise

She is the latest in a long-line of 'lodgers'.  There has been a stream of various post-grad students staying at the house at different times.  Elizabeth likes to work alongside the enthusiasm of new people in her field and enjoys mentoring their progress.  They have a bed-sit arrangement in the house so, in the main, they come and go as they please and run their own lives.