Mind you , in fairness to the old girl , she does have Bernice for a daughter-in-law , does occasionally burst into song – off key , of course – and she plays no part in the beach war going on around her .
That war is all about the ‘ right kind of people ’ wanting the wrong kind of people to keep their distance .
Down beach it is a heaving mass of humanity , up beach , where the beach huts stand , there is space to relax with a proper sense of decorum . And , in an effort to keep things this way , the ‘ right kind of people ’ bend over backwards to maintain the falsehood that their bit of beach is private property .
Little by little the wrong kind of people start eroding the beach hutters ’ world and war breaks out when a ‘ dreadful ’ woman named Mrs Penfold discovers the upper beach is not private property .