It is the story of a woman tightly bound by the strictures of class and status, of her uneasy alliance with a man of rigid habits, and most importantly, the story of their son, caught between the two of them. The currents of Eva's life ran deeper than her husband's, back to Australia, where she was born and raised, finally coming to England as a teenager. Elsa and Eva shared the same boyfriends until Eva met Joe and began a resolute quest for bourgeois respectability that would, she fervently hoped, erase the lower-class stigma of her Aussie roots. The Dartford house, with its pebbled walls and French windows opening to the garden where young Mike and Chris swung from the apple trees, was immaculate. Eva's reputation for fastidiousness was matched by Joe's stiff and unyielding regimens.
Neighbors recall a yard laid out with cricket pitches, dumbbells, and other sporting accoutrements.
Household order was maintained by a carefully administered system of punishment and reward. He did everything he was told at home. Others recall mandatory daily exercise routines, push-ups, weight lifting, and laps around the garden before Joe allowed the youngster out to play. It's more of a hang-up making it if you're from the bourgeoisie, because if you're from the bottom you've got nothing to lose. It seems likely that Mick found a kindred spirit in Eva, for whom British propriety had to be carefully emulated rather than simply learned.