How SWEDE it is

Swedish influences are much in evidence in Caroline and Simon’s Cheltenham home

- Victoria Jenkins

Caroline Webster was born in Sweden to British parents, who had gone there in the 1960s as language teachers.

“And they’re still there, all these years later,” says Caroline who speaks fluent Swedish and trained as a nurse over there. “But I came to the UK when I was 26 on a year’s sabbatical sponsored by the Swedish government.”

Then fate stepped in. For in London Caroline met Simon, a doctor, and in due course they married and had three children, twins Freya and Thomas (14) and Ella (10).

“So, I never did go back to Sweden to work,” she says. “Although Simon did for a year – to work in the hospital I was born in! – and I went with him with the twins. I was expecting Ella at the time and she was born in the very same unit as me.”

Now, however, the family are back in the UK, living in a five-bedroomed house in Cheltenham.

“We both work in the local hospital and our old terraced house was getting a bit small for us. We looked for a long time – Simon saw this house from the outside and wasn’t impressed but when I came along later and walked into it, it just felt right. It was quiet and light and there was a big garden, so we bought it.”