‘Let me remind you,’ said Marianne, ‘that Manchester is also my hometown, and I have never thought it mundane. The place I grew up in isn’t there any more, changed out of recognition by what passes nowadays for architecture and planning. Prince Charles is giving some of those responsible the rebuke they deserve, in my opinion, for what’s been done to some of Britain’s cities, Manchester included!’

‘Calm down and make the tea, Mum!’

‘Why I’m het up is part of what I had started telling you. Despite the many years I’ve lived in London, at heart I’ve remained a Mancunian. And there’s still the throb of life in Manchester that there always was, Martin. Mundane indeed! It’s people who make the atmosphere of a city, and those like you, who’ve never lived up north, don’t know what they’ve missed.’

‘I think what you’re talking about, Mum, is how everyone feels about the place they were raised in.’

‘Probably. If the family hadn’t driven me to it, I’d never have left the north again.’

‘Nor would you have met Simon Newman.’

Marianne let that pass.

‘Did you know that Frank’s been suffering from work stress?’

‘No, but I know now! Who passed that titbit on to you?’

‘I think it was Laura, when I last spoke to her.’

‘Did it ever strike you, Martin, that absolutely nothing happens in our family without the lot of us getting to know about it?’

‘You do seem to have a down on the family tonight!’

Marianne added milk to the tea and returned with the mugs to the table. ‘What I’m coming to have a down on, Martin, is the institution a family is. Look what it did to Howard’s first marriage. Not to mention its effect upon yours. I may as well tell you now that I’ve been protecting my love affair from the family. And in a way I envy Henry. What but the family did he turn his back on, to live his own life?’

‘Since I’m part of what you’re protecting your affair from, forgive me for feeling hurt,’ said her son. ‘Why don’t you and Simon Newman pack up your typewriters and go and live on a desert island?’

‘Nature didn’t equip me with Henry’s self-absorption,’ Marianne replied. ‘And what’s the betting he’s in Manchester to collect yet another handout from his twin?’

‘Frank isn’t there, Leona told A.P. after he’d spoken to Henry. He’s taking a break in the Lake District.’

‘If Henry had known that, he wouldn’t have wasted money on flying to Manchester,’ said Marianne. ‘Leona probably added to his disappointment by telling him it served him right for never letting them know he’s coming. And he won’t get a penny out of her. She hates his guts.’