My parents were not so grand, but were very well read and expected better things for their daughter, like going to university in a time when it was practically unheard of. Only the smallest handful of children from 70s/80s Cornwall were expected to attend university and usually they were from the professional classes. I baulked at that idea. Plus, I was from a home that tended to not give you a lot of freedom and were hot on chaperonage. They were trying to force the 1950s model onto an 80s teenager and it just didn't work.

I brought back a couple of boyfriends who were friends of friends; one was a lovely lad, but my mother ended the relationship on the basis that she didn't like his handwriting. I tended to keep their presence very low key after that.