by Pip Burley

Synopsis

Richard Harvey and his wife Jane live with their daughter Jennie in a nicely converted barn in Buckhurst, a village somewhere in Surrey.  But not for much longer.  They are selling up.  Not through choice but because Richard has lost all their money in a disastrous business deal. 

Richard is an architect who, not so long ago, had a rather successful practice.  Now the house is mortgaged up to the hilt and he has to find a way to pay back the money he borrowed to fund the ill-fated scheme in Spain. He needs to get some equity and the only way he can think of doing it is to sell the house and move the family into a rented flat.

Whilst not liking the prospect of moving down in the world, Jane is standing by her man whilst at the same time trying to get a job.  15-year old Jennie is not keen on her Mum working.  At the moment Jane acts as an unpaid taxi service as well as pretty much everything else and this could have a seriously adverse effect on Jen’s complex teenage life.

They have put the house with a small but go-ahead local estate agency called Eversheds through whom they had bought the place three years before.  The senior partner, Vic Evershed, is handling the matter himself, backed up by his father, Hugh.

Vic’s efforts, however, are showing little reward.  Only one genuinely interested party turns up, a certain Pandit Khan whose new wife, Soraya, is an exotic model.

Richard’s problems are not confined to selling the house.  Jane’s outspoken mother, Valerie, and the elderly next-door neighbours, Veronica and Marjorie, are not on his ‘favourite’ list and seem to be doing all they can to make matters worse. efforts, however, are showing little reward.  Only one genuinely interested party turns up, a certain Pandit Khan whose new wife, Soraya, is an exotic model.  

Characters