Ambridge and the Sisterhood
Never were there such devoted sisters, as the song goes...but how devoted are the siblings of Ambridge?
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Lilian and Jennifer were brought up in The Bull, daughters of (now Woolley) and her alcoholic first husband Jack Archer.
Businesswoman Lilian has come to terms with her roots but society hostess Jennifer prefers not to dwell on her proletarian beginnings. Lilian is as at home with the Grundys as she is with Caroline Sterling, and will happily help anyone out in a crisis. Her own shortcomings (disastrous relationships with toyboy Scott and the shifty Matt Crawford) help her to avoid being judgmental. She is happy to remember that she was a landlady’s daughter and even takes her turn behind the bar when the need arises.
Jennifer, on the other hand, is crippled with social insecurity and loathes having to mix with what she would regard as the hoi-polloi. She was horrified, for example, to discover that her daughter had married the blacksmith, , in Las Vegas.
Whilst Jennifer doesn’t share Lilian’s occasional bacchanalian forays, and is sometimes unsettled by her brash behaviour, she enjoys the ray of sunshine and rebellion that Lilian brings to her life. In return, Lilian delights in teasing Jennifer for her snobbery. The sisters have both supported each other through some tough times and now, more than ever, they are leaning on each other and enjoying each other’s company. After , Lilian moved in with Jennifer at Home Farm. Despite Brian’s annoyance, she ended up staying for two years.
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Just as Jennifer’s dearest wish is to forget she lived in The Bull, Susan’s dearest wish is to forget that Tracy Horrobin is her sister. Susan is an adept social climber whose happiest day was when Christopher married Alice Aldridge. The noisy, ebullient Tracy is proudly working class and caused Susan much alarm when she moved in with her two children to Ambridge View, Susan’s pristine home. She also mortified Susan by shamelessly pursuing Freddie Pargetter’s maths coach Iftikar. Tracy is Susan’s social nemesis and prevents Susan from ever forgetting she’s a Horrobin.
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Despite an occasionally stormy relationship, particularly when younger sister Elizabeth chose to have an abortion after a very unhappy love affair, Shula is supportive of widowed Elizabeth and the two sisters regularly communicate without informing their brothers, and , in solving family problems.
Despite her churchgoing, horsey appearance, a passionate heart beats under Shula’s quilted jacket. She's had her own problems to overcome in her love life - at one point she had an affair with the handsome , the local GP, who was living with (formally Usha Gupta) at the time, this destroyed her friendship with Usha forever. The Doctor has recently returned to Ambridge and is settling back into village life. The sisters have definitely bonded more in the last couple of years since the tragic death of Elizabeth's husband, Nigel Pargetter.
