Since then Hugo had done everything he could to make sure his illegitimate son, Harry, never inherited his fortune. Obviously no one thought of opening the hull to look for Arthur, because in Jeffworld the Barringtons could fix everything. So when Hugo heard that Arthur Clifton was trapped working inside, he decided to let him die there to save the bother of opening the hull. It had been Hugo's idea to expand the business into shipbuilding and the first project was losing money. I couldn't help it that her husband was killed. Hugo Barrington 1921-36 I've always been a bad egg and when I saw that slut Maisie we both understood I had droit de seigneur. But she vowed to do anything she could to pay Harry's school fees. Then it burned down and she had to give nearly all the insurance money to Hugo Barrington who had, unknown to her, put up capital, so she was broke again. Maisie eventually bought the shop and after a lot of hard work, it made a profit. Maisie worked long and hard at Mrs Tilly's teashop to make ends meet, but you already know that, though I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to a lot of repetition in these parallel narratives. Maisie Clifton 1920-36 I had always suspected the wealthy baddy, Hugo Barrington was Harry's father and had mysteriously killed Arthur two years later, but I couldn't prove it. Luckily, Giles owned up, so Harry could go to Bristol grammar school after all.

Harry put everything back to protect him, but was blamed for it. For no apparent reason, Giles started shoplifting.

There he was bullied by everyone except Giles Barrington, the nice-but-dim son of the shipyard owner who befriended him, though Giles's father hated Harry on sight.

When he was small, he aspired to nothing more than a job in Barrington's shipyard where his father had once worked, but then he met Old Jack Tar who told him he was very clever and had a nice singing voice, so he won a choral scholarship to St Bede's. Harry was a working-class lad with a heart of gold and his working-class Mum worked all hours in Mrs Tilly's teashop to feed him.

Only time will tell book summary