Gifted and Talented

Wendy Holden

Forget not in front of the children. What about the parents?

Sara is the ultimate pushy mother. Her son Alfie has never seen a Playstation, is never allowed telly, has door-to-door classical music on the school run and spends his holidays brass-rubbing in churches mentioned in poems by Betjeman and Larkin. Sharon, by contrast, is the ultimate slobby mother. Her daughter Madison, also 8, wears top to toe pink in defiance of school rules and is delivered daily (late) in a car which shakes with hip hop. There's more to Madison than meets the eye, however; and she and Alfie strike up an unlikely friendship that has far-reaching consequences for both of them. Not to mention their mothers...