Dominic Sandbrook

Yes, except he's more formidable.

Nelson's dad was a little bit, was mild-mannered and easygoing.

A bit wet, wasn't he?

This bloke's not wet at all.

He's a sort of terrifying Victorian with massive sideburns.

I mean, an indication of what kind of man her father is.

When her father was training to become a parson, he fell in love with his housekeeper's daughter, who was called Louisa, and he wanted to marry her.

But he said to her, I will only marry you when you've educated yourself to an appropriate level for a parson's wife.

And depending, you know, some people may say that's unromantic of him.

Others may applaud his high standards.

I leave that to the listeners to decide.

But anyway, this bloke gets a living in Norfolk, and that's where Edith is born, where she grows up.

It's obviously a...

austere kind of existence so they had servants and one anecdote we have about the servants is that a maid once scrawled in pencil on the wall of her attic bedroom the pay is small the food is bad i wonder why i don't go mad

which doesn't say much, for the jollity and generosity of the Cavill family.

Basically, we don't really know anything about Edith when she's growing up.

I mean, the accounts that you find, she liked dogs, she liked ice skating, she liked flowers, but this is so generic.

This is so sort of generic, saintly Victorian child.

that I don't think you can extrapolate much from it.

She's educated at home at first, then she goes to a series of boarding schools.