Mother’s Day was spent going through all the old photos stored in the basement and photographing them for the diary; stirring up a lot of memories.

On Friday, I mentioned that Susan took me to meet her in-laws, the Wilmots, at Stone House, Kent, on my second day in England in August 1988 on an idyllic summer’s day. And how this was the first time I met Geoffrey, my future husband. Little did I know that Susan’s in-laws would become mine in six months’ time.

The first thing that I noticed was how quintessentially English their way of life was. Croquet on the lawn, scones and cakes at 4pm, on the dot. And their voices – just like the Queen’s. Tony Wilmot (father) was wearing a safari shirt. He and his wife, Eve, had lived in Africa all their married life until retirement. In fact, Eve’s father was a missionary doctor in Uganda and Ruanda, so once she married Tony, he essentially took her home. Tony first met Eve in a boarding house in Wimbledon just after WW2, and it was love at first sight for him. (He had been mentioned in dispatches for his war service in Africa, where he was rapidly promoted to colonel-in-charge of ciphers in East Africa.) They were formal, but warm and friendly.

I was obsessed in 1981 with the television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, starring  Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons (I once saw the latter on a return trip to Madrid and he was so dashing), which was partly set in Oxford. Tony was educated at Oxford, where he was taught by C.S. Lewis.

Stone House had that same air as Oxford after the Second World War: Empire, Queen, country, manners, formality and cerebral pursuits. I noticed a study full of books, African artefacts, the tick-tock of a grandfather clock somewhere in the distance. I later discovered that Tony and Eve always filled in the Daily Telegraph crossword after lunch and that the family regularly played Scrabble after dinner. Before bed, there were prayers.  This family was into words. They had memorised most of the Oxford Dictionary. 

And now let’s talk about Geoffrey – Geoff. The first thing I noticed was that although he was trim and fit, he had relatively white legs compared to an Aussie male. He was polite, but aloof. He had that British reserve. I was not in the least bit attracted to him. He was too different from the sort of bloke I had rubbed shoulders with in Oz, in both looks and manner.

Susan and I gave him a lift back with us to London as he was going to see a Jacobean play (the period after Elizabeth I – 1567 to 1625) with a female friend – not a date. Can you imagine an Aussie bloke ever attending such an evening! He was bemoaning the fact that it was going to be boring. I suggested that if the evening became really dull, he could spice it up and give her a “cuddle”. I didn’t know that their relationship was platonic. He burst out laughing. He later told me that when I made him laugh, that was the first time he really clocked me.

Susan suggested he might like to show me the sights of London as part of his best man’s duties. We agreed to meet up sometime, with no fixed time planned.

So later is Book Club.