Scouring property sites isn’t usually my thing, but it has enabled me to identify original features through house histories, floor plans and early photos. The result? A ton of corrections, of course, but the ‘upside-down house’ is finally as it would have been in the early ’70s, both inside and out, in all its quirkiness. (Now I know why 'book 2' couldn’t have been rushed out sooner!)

The estate in question was built in the ’30s and marketed as ‘holiday homes by the sea’. To make the most of the views, these box-like, flat-roofed homes were built ‘upside-down’, i.e., with living-room and kitchen upstairs. As well as having a roof terrace, they also had another over the front bedrooms with just enough room for sun loungers and a small table — presumably the idea was to soak up the sun while watching neighbours relax on the communal green!

Entry was via a side door, and the rendered exterior and clean lines placed it firmly in the modernist camp. Inside, while the living-room was a good size, the stairs were narrow and the landing tiny, with doors leading to the living-room, the small kitchen, or external stairs to the roof.

By the early ’70s many owners had glazed over the front terrace to create an upstairs dining room with just enough depth for a table and chairs. While this freed up space in the living-room, the biggest alterations have occurred this century, with many merging the upstairs rooms into one big living space, as well as adding rear balconies, and sometimes internal stairs to the roof. In short, what began life as a uniform estate has become increasingly diverse.

So yes, ‘my’ house could have had all these alterations in place by 1973, as per my original version, but it would have been wrong. Why? Because nobody else there did, not until much later. Almost there ...