This book tells the story of generations of a family trying to climb the social ladder. In their attempts to 'better themselves' the family encounter issues of respectability and illegitimacy. This story is based on some of the tales my family have told me over the years, and my own experience of living in a street where my grandmother was a maid. I often wondered what she would have thought of her granddaughter, having a good job as a university lecturer and living in a big house. As part of a working class family in the North East of England, I have seen this struggle many times, each time failing. The disappointment this causes is a backdrop to life, and is always there.