My next book, ‘Martine’, will be out in a week and you’ll hear a lot more about Rock goddess Debbie Stewart’s early days.  She had a less than happy childhood as the daughter of an autocratic, almost Victorian father, who makes no secret of the fact that he had wanted a son and saw a daughter as no substitute at all.  She always felt unwanted and he eventually threw her out because she left school to pursue her musical dreams, and despite her global success he never relented and renewed contact. His attitude to Deb is well summed him up when her mother wants her to go to a fee paying school and he retorts “What kind of fool would pay to educate a girl?”

Joseph Stewart got me thinking about other Saltbury dads, because I have quite a range.  Some are as hard to live with as Joseph.  Shy little Rosie Drymen’s once lovely father slips gradually into a mental illness which particularly manifests as violent homophobia, and leaves his lesbian teenage daughter terrified.  Yvonne Wright, on the other hand, had a feckless Dad, who abandoned his wife and five year old daughter for another woman and never made his maintenance payments.

Annie Roberts’ Dad, Barry, is rather different.  He loves his daughter and is immensely caring, but ultimately he lacks his wife, Crystal’s, inner strength.  When Annie becomes dangerously ill he simply can’t stand it and spends as much time as he can working on engineering projects abroad, only to reappear when she recovers.

On the other hand, we have some wonderfully supportive Dads.  Tina Burns and Carol Baxter, one of our two central couples, are two very different women.  They couldn’t stand each other at first.  But they have a surprising amount in common.  They are both the sisters of older brothers and have mothers who resent their sexuality.  But they have adoring fathers who put untiring effort into backing and mentoring their daughters.

Many people expect former Olympic athlete Gordon Baxter to be disappointed that his son has little interest in sport.  But in fact he barely seems concerned.  He soon realises that his daughter is something very special indeed when it comes to athletics.  He acts as her coach and the two become a remarkable team, however much they might knock sparks off each other.  He also realises almost at once just how good Tina is for Carol and unlike his wife, he is totally behind their relationship.

Desmond Burns takes a little longer to totally get with the programme.  He has doted on Tina from the day she was born.  He calls her Princess and is thrilled that she shares his passion for gardening.  But in ‘Haze’ we see the pair have a major row because Des is upset that his son, Peter, doesn’t want to go into his law firm and thinks the fact that Tina does isn’t enough.  He soon changes his mind though, and the two make a great working team.

Martine Fauld’s father, George, is a superb teacher, who specialises in teaching dyslexic children. Yet he can’t face the fact that his own daughter is dyslexic.  He has a rather fractious relationship with his youngest child when Marty is in her teens (what else is new?).  But they soon make up.

Chantel Barham’s Dad, Fred, is dead by the time we meet Chantel herself.  But he leaves her with the fondest of fond memories.  Her mother drowned herself in 1948 while suffering from post natal depression, leaving Chantel as a babe in arms.  Many men of the time would have farmed her out on relatives or remarried as soon as possible to any woman who looked like she might act as a nanny.  Not Fred, though.  He had help to be sure, but he brought up his daughter himself and the two became very close.  He tried hard to get her a nice indoor office job in the warm, where she might meet a suitable young man.  But when she showed herself determined to work on his river tug, he was secretly very proud indeed, and even more so when she qualified as a skipper.  Of course he pretended not to realise she was a lesbian.  This was still the 1960s after all.  But she knew he knew.  He just wasn’t saying.

And finally there are the four Fauld sisters.  As the daughters of a lesbian couple, their fathers were always going to be a bit of a story.  Roisin and Hazel were born to Martine, but she and Deb decided they both wanted to be related to their children, so they persuaded Deb’s cousin Rob to provide an AI sample.  He played only a minor role in their early lives.  In fact they didn’t find out he even was their father until their teens.  But that’s not because he doesn’t care.  It’s how Marty and Deb wanted it.

Later though, when Deb gives birth to Sofie and Danielle, Martine’s childless older brother, Leo, provides the samples.  But only if he can be a more hands-on dad.