The fourth character is Sam Davies. He is a poorly
paid journalist who lives with his wife Hannah and
their two daughters – Emma aged sixteen and Alicia
aged two. He always has money problems. He gets
into trouble by agreeing to pay £700 so that Emma
can go on a school trip to Norway. His brother Jeremy
tells him he must get a better job and refuses to lend
him the money. Sam therefore has to sell the jewellery
that his mother left him. Sam changes his job, staying
at home to write and look after Alicia, while Hannah
goes out to work. In the meantime, an old friend has
died, leaving him £50,000. However, the letter from
the lawyers informing him of this is burnt in the mail
van fire. He doesn’t find out about it until the lawyers
get in touch again three months later.
So the lives of the four sets of neighbours are all
affected in different ways by the mail van fire.