Joe and Josie are identical twins

They are both thirty-nine years old

Although identical Joe is much taller than Josie

Who has a gamine like appearance and boyish hair

At the age of seventeen they began a relationship

Initially they kept this secret living as brother and sister

Their father was the vicar of a church in Gloucestershire

Their mother had worked for the BBC before the twins were born

They spent their childhood years in a nineteenth century vicarage

Both Joe and Josie attended a private school in the county

And later read English at Cambridge University

They shared rooms in the city as brother and sister

After graduating the twins suddenly and without explanation separated

Josie lived and later taught in Argentina

Joe stayed in England and published his first book

Followed by his first volume of poetry

All before the age of twenty-one

Apart from visits the siblings were apart for three years

Josie began an affair with a married American woman

Joe had a number of girlfriends but nothing serious resulted

They met again in Lisbon and opened out their lives


to be continued