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Joh
Colin was born in 1945. Two small children, in a wretched flat in Notting Hill, then a run-down and poor part of London. Joh
Frances did not join the Party, though Joh
'But who would know?' enquired Frances, adding to his contempt for her, because she had no feeling for politics and never would.
'The Party knows,' said Joh
'Too bad, ' said Frances.
They were definitely not getting on, and the Party was the least of it, though a great irritation for Frances. They were living in real hardship, not to say squalor. He saw this as a sign of i
If he was delighted, his mother was not. When she came, always having written first, on thick white paper you could cut yourself with, she sat with distaste on the edge of a chair which probably had residues of smeared biscuit or orange on it. She would a
Frances would not let her eyes meet Julia’s at such moments, because she was not going to be disloyal. She felt that her life, all of it, and herself in it, was dowdy, ugly, exhausting, and Joh
And it did, because Joh
'And how am I going to live?' asked Frances, already knowing what to expect.
‘I’ll pay maintenance, of course, ' said Joh
She found a council nursery, and got a small job in a business making theatre sets and costumes. It was badly paid, but she managed. Julia arrived to complain that the children were being neglected and their clothes were a disgrace.
' Perhaps you should talk to your son?' said Frances. ' He owes me a year’s maintenance. ' Then it was two years, three years.
Julia asked whether if she got a decent allowance from the family would she give up her job and look after the boys?
Frances said no.
‘But I wouldn't interfere with you, ' said Julia. ‘I promise you that.'
‘You don't understand, ' said Frances.
‘No, I do not. And perhaps you would explain it to me?'
Joh
He left again for another real, genuine comrade. When he again returned to Frances, she said to him: ' Out. '
She was working full time in a theatre, earning not much but enough. The boys were by then ten and eight. There was trouble all the time at the schools, and they were not doing well.
‘What do you expect?' said Julia.
‘I never expect anything, ' said Frances.
Then things changed, dramatically. Frances was amazed to hear that Comrade Joh
'You mean to say you are happy for Andrew to go to that school?' Frances said to him, on the telephone.
'Well, you at least get a good education,' said Joh
So – Julia paying – Andrew took off from the poor rooms his mother and brother were living in, for Eton, and spent his holidays with schoolfriends, and became a polite stranger.
Frances went to an end-of-term at Eton, in an outfit bought to fit what she imagined would suit the occasion, and the first hat she had ever worn. She did all right, she thought, and could see Andrew was relieved when he saw her.
Then people came to ask after Julia, Philip's widow, and the daughter-in-law of Philip's father: an old man remembered him, as a small boy. It seemed the Le
Thereafter Julia went to the formal occasions, where she was made much of, and was surprised at it: visiting Eton in those brief three years of Jolyon's attendance there, she had seen herself as Philip's wife, and of not much account.
Colin refused Eton, because of a deep, complicated loyalty to his mother whom he had watched struggling all these years. This did not mean he did not quarrel with her, fight her, argue, and did so badly at school Frances was secretly convinced he was doing it on purpose to hurt her. But he was cold and angry with his father, when Joh
Joh
Frances thought of Andrew, returning to various squalid addresses, or not returning, certainly never bringing friends home.
She thought of Colin who made no secret of how much he hated how they were living. She said yes to Joh
Only she knew what it cost her. She had kept her independence all this time, paid for herself and the boys, and not accepted money from Julia, nor from her parents who would have been happy to help. Now here she was, and it was a final capitulation: what to other people was 'such a sensible arrangement' was defeat. She was no longer herself, she was an appendage of the Le
As far as Joh