Chichester

Chichester, in Sussex, is where Dexter Mayhew visits Sylvie Mayhew’s family for the first time. The stopover falls within a long weekend that will continue with a drive to a rented cottage in Cornwall, where Sylvie plans to teach him to surf. In the midst of Dexter’s new love, the visit makes romance feel not only like escape but also like an encounter with a family whose confidence unsettles him.

Setting and Visit

The family gathering takes place in a red-brick mansion Dexter sees as resembling a high-end doll’s house. After dessert—sorbet made from the family’s own strawberries, which he has praised lavishly—he helps Sylvie carry the plates inside and load the dishwasher in the Victorian country kitchen. The domestic task brings the visit’s polished surroundings down to small, observable social details: Dexter has to learn which brother is which, and Sylvie tells him that Sam is hateful while Murray is foul.

Family Encounter

The Copes’ way of life sharpens Dexter’s unease. They are early risers, mountain-walkers, and lake-swimmers, and he experiences them as hale, hearty, superior, and self-satisfied. He recognizes that his anxiety is not about class: his own background is equally privileged, though more liberal and bohemian. What troubles him is the sense that he must prove himself a winner. When he enters the living room, the family turns toward him after what seems to be a hurried hush; the room’s country-house-hotel décor and its fanned-out copies of Country Life, Private Eye, and the Economist make the setting part of that scrutiny.

Narrative Significance

Chichester frames Dexter’s first test within Sylvie’s family as a contrast between his desire to be accepted and his defensive resolve not to be intimidated. He is conscious of how he is performing, checks Sylvie’s reassuring smile, and limits himself to one last glass of wine so he can keep his wits about him. Yet the pressure does not cancel his excitement about their trip: even while he knows he should be working or looking for work, the prospect of Sylvie teaching him to surf has a powerful hold on him. The stopover therefore places the exhilaration of new love beside the effort of fitting into a family world that makes Dexter feel he has something to prove.