Another passage from Addlestone, the first book in The Addlestone Chronicles trilogy:
<<They’d been invited to a New Year’s Eve party hosted by Ran Lawrie, the Cambridge stroke. Louise persuaded Bea to accompany them. She lent Bea one of her evening dresses since they were approximately the same shape. Bea asked Louise for a few hints on conversational gambits and help with her makeup. It was obvious she was nervous about going to parties. “Just be yourself. You’re a beautiful, intelligent, and talented woman. No man could desire more.”
They arrived at Ran’s parents’ house in Chelsea an hour before midnight. James decided he wouldn’t drink alcohol as he’d be driving back to Woburn in the early hours. In the crowded drawing room, Bea became the centre of attention to a gaggle of young men and fought off multiple invitations to dance. Gramophone music included a fox trot, Oh! You Sweet Thing, a quickstep, Go Into Your Dance, and then a slow ballad by Connee Boswell, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. James noticed his sister knew the latest steps and suspected she’d practiced with her Surrey lady friends.
The radiogram was turned on so they could join the countdown as Big Ben sounded twelve times. After toasting the New Year and singing Auld Lang Syne, the young men queued to give Bea a kiss.
At two in the morning, James and Louise made their excuses but had to coax Bea away from her admirers. As James drove back to Woburn, the ladies whispered in the back seat. He politely tried not to eavesdrop over the engine noise.>>
As a postscript it is perhaps interesting to note that George Randal Mundell Laurie, known as Ran to his friends, led the Cambridge 1935 Boat Race crew. After graduation, he qualified as a medical doctor. He was stroke for Great Britain’s eights at the 1936 Munich Olympics. When Olympic competitions resumed in London in 1948, he won gold in the coxless pairs with Jack Wilson. Ran’s son is Hugh Lawrie, the comedian and actor. A Cambridge graduate of Selwyn College, he gained international fame in the US television series House.