At Home with the Templetons

Monica McInerney

The father, Henry, persuades his children to dress in traditional clothes to give paying visitors the grand tour, and they have to muck in with the cleaning and tidying too.

They’re considered strange by all the locals; nobody is keen to mix with them. And to make matters worse, their aunt Hope, an alcoholic, has a habit of spoiling any moments of family happiness. The older girls, Charlotte and Audrey, get some solace from attending boarding school, but Gracie and the tearaway Spenser lead an isolated existence. Until, that is, their neighbour, a young widow called Nina, and her son Tom start to form links with the family.