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MORTIMER
The handsomely moustachioed and irrascible butler and footman at HS Towers has a lifetime of service behind him having been batman to some of Britain's leading military officer class as far back as The Raj and has seen service in the far east, middle east, India and the tropics. He has an undying devotion to Joanna Lumley and also possesses an impressive collection of special oriental gentleman's literature.
He can often be found rummaging round the back passages here or in his room adding to his Joanna Lumley scrapbook. |
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JANET
HS Tower's housekeeper is a tiny little woman but stern and fiercely efficient and keeps us all in check here.
If she has a failing it is her obsession with doilies - she puts them everywhere. This is not a problem in and of itself but it's most disconcerting when you have a few of the chaps round for an evening of malt tasting and she's fussing around with doilies every time you put your glass down. |
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MRS FEATHERLIGHT
Our wonderful cook, she can prepare an astonishing range of dishes from her encyclopaedic knowledge of recipes. Originally of Russian parentage, her grandfather was last seen being dragged down the street by the Bolsheviks so her parents made their way to Britain where, aged 16, she married the feckless Reginald Featherlight who spends his time and his wife's money on cheap rum and betting on the horses. It's tragic really because she's a formidable and buxom woman who takes care of us all here so well. |
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MOLLIE
Mollie serves as the secretary here and is a vivacious young thing who is a delight to be around. She may give the appearance of ditzy loose headedness but she is a dab hand with correction fluid and an unusual capacity for Pimms and whisky into the wee hours.
She's a very fashionable young woman ... or would be had she lived 80 years ago but as it is, her unique style fits right in here in amongst the tweed, corduroy, brogues and briars. |
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BILL
We found Bill. He was sleeping rough on the estate and was discovered one day. Mrs Featherlight gave him one of her legendary English breakfasts and as we chatted, it transpired he was once a professional horticulturalist who had fallen on bad times following an unspecified scandal in the Lower Tropical Nursery at Kew Gardens many years previously. He has since been retained here as gardener and has been able to revive his love of tending to nature. His marrows have to be seen to be believed!
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JAMES
Our gamekeeper came with HS Towers when we acquired it. A dour Scotsman with a soft, lilting accent, he comes from generations of gamekeeping, is a first class equestrian and expert gunsmith at odds with the banning of animal traps and fox hunting so it's best not to raise the subject in conversation with him.
But there's another side to James Gordon MacAlister - he enjoys making jam and keeps garden gnomes in the grounds of his lodge.
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