Tamsin always wished that she had a sister. She likes girlie things, is well read, and is very petite.

Her hair is very light, and she wears it short, curled with simple clips. When she is working outside, she always wears a scarf, but a short wisp or two usually escapes to dangle on her forehead.

She likes old-fashioned dancing to slower music. Every week, she sends letters to her brother, sketching more than writing.

In late May 1940, Tamsin joins the Women's Land Army (WLA) and is posted to a hostel in Essex. It is here, in her first weeks, that she meets Elizabeth Caplan, and soon finds a friend who is like the sister she's always wanted. They work together for the rest of the war.

Later in 1940, the girls transfer, at Harry's request, to a hostel in Kent, close to Everley. Eventually billetted at Everley, they spend the rest of the war working the Lees' fields.