Though it's a long way from London, Christchurch was in many respects, a perfect little model of a perfect little British city, and by all accounts, the Hulmes lacked little in the way of creature comforts there. By 1950, the university had set the professor up in a solid manse named Ilam, set amid sprawling gardens, and the family also boasted a country cottage in Port Levy, 35 miles from Christchurch.
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| Juliet Hulme, young |
By all outward appearances, the Hulmes' life at Ilam was a picture of pastoral perfection. But, as is always the case, there were snakes in the garden. For a variety of reasons, Professor Hulmes' relation with the university's directors was tense, and getting tenser. And the Hulme's seemingly flawless aristocratic marriage was also rockier than anyone on the outside might have imagined. In fact, during Hilda Hulme's sojourn in New Zealand, she struck up a romance with Walter Perry, whom she later married after her relationship with Professor Hulme crumbled.
But to Pauline Parker, the young lower middle class girl whom Juliet had met and befriended at Christchurch Girls' High School, Ilam was a wonderland and the people who inhabited it seemed like minor deities.
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