. . 10 Blood is Thicker than Water Blood may be thicker than water but it is also a great deal nastier. E. C. Somerville and Martin Ross,Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. (1899) As he arrived in the world, my father encountered his first relation. His mother. It was not an encouraging start. His mother’s appreciation of her son was marginal and her criticisms generous. Her known pleasures lay in expanding her hat collection, pampering her poodles and sharpening her tongue. Some balance was achieved by the kindly nature of his gentler father. Little Roger did not give his parents much trouble. He got on well enough with his elder sister, Joan, my grandmother’s favourite. That my grandmother had grown up in a family of thirteen children had done little to mellow her outlook. She was not unintelligent but she may have been blighted by some inner and untold unhappiness, poor lady. Her father, Thomas Blackwell, was well liked and a highly respected business tycoon. Latterly known as the ‘Jam King’ he was the Blackwell of ‘Crosse & Blackwell’, purveyors of fine jams, pickles and conserves since the early 1800s.
