Hope to Die

I knew Dick back when he was still just a builder. In the early days, when he’d just started out on his own and they were living in a semi in Gloucester. Back then he’d roll his sleeves up and plumb in a bathroom himself if he had to. But then he started to make money, and went into ‘property’ and they bought the house in Shiphampton. By the time Camilla came along they were moving in very different circles. I didn’t see them socially much after that. I’d babysit, but I didn’t get invited to many of their parties. Dick was a local councillor by then, and treasurer of the Shiphampton Rotary Club, and Peggy was doing a lot of charity work, and things for the school. She was always very much the power behind the throne.

JOHN’S VOICE (off)

Were they good parents?

SHEILA WARD

Depends what you mean by good. They were quite strict. Peggy kept a big chart in the kitchen, showing what chores Camilla had done, and whether she’d got good marks at school or kept her room tidy. It had gold stars stuck to it and if she didn’t get enough stars by Friday her pocket money would be docked or she wouldn’t be able to have ice cream. And there was another big chart with her schedule. Brownies, ballet, swimming, piano. There were set times for everything. Of course when she was little Camilla didn’t mind – she just wanted to please them. She always wanted to please them. Especially her mother.

JOHN’S VOICE (off)

What about as she got older?

SHEILA WARD

Oh, she still wanted to please them, so she kept to the rules. She just got cleverer about how she did it.

JOHN’S VOICE (off)

And boyfriends – did the Rowans have rules about that?

SHEILA WARD

(laughs)

Oh yes – there were a lot of rules about that. Who she saw, where they went, what time they got back. But like I said, by that time Camilla had got a lot cleverer at bending them. And of course, they had no idea what she got up to at that school.

RECONSTRUCTION, soft-focus: girls playing hockey on sunlit playing field with Victorian buildings behind, girls walking in a crocodile wearing uniforms and straw hats, girls singing in a chapel choir, etc.

VOICEOVER

Burghley Abbey in Warwickshire is one of the most prestigious girls’ schools in England. Founded in the 19th century, it boasts celebrities and minor royals among its old girls. It’s very sporty, very musical, and very, very expensive.

Cut to: sitting room, evening. Lamps lit, fire in background, bookcases, oil painting on wall.

TITLE OVER: Marion Teesdale, Housemistress, Burghley Abbey School, 1986–2014

MARION TEESDALE

I sat in on Camilla’s admissions interview before she came to Burghley and I remember how confident she was, even at that age. She’d only have been around seven at the time, but she was very articulate, and very comfortable talking to adults. It was obvious that her parents had coached her – every time she answered a question she looked across at her mother for approval. Her father didn’t say a great deal – I got the impression he was quite reserved. Camilla started the following September as a day girl. It was a thirty-mile round trip to drop her off and collect her every day, and there was Saturday-morning school as well, but her mother insisted that she was too young to be living away from home.

JOHN’S VOICE (off)

Aren’t the fees cheaper for day pupils as well?

MARION TEESDALE

Yes, of course, but Mrs Rowan made a point of saying that that wasn’t the reason.

MONTAGE: sequence of images taking Camilla from junior to senior school, her face being circled each time in red pen. School photographs, sports team photos, on field trips, on a French exchange, etc. Last photo, of a hockey team, shows Camilla with her friends Melissa Rutherford and Leonora Staniforth.

Cut to: kitchen. Aga, hanging rack of copper pans, kids’ drawings stuck on the fridge, view of countryside from the window.

TITLE OVER: Leonora Neville, née Staniforth, Camilla’s school friend

LEONORA STANIFORTH