First, the thirtysomething property owner feels blessed by chance, then, almost immediately, there’s a realisation that the windfall may escape them altogether.On the one hand, the Eighties boom is rapidly coming full circle; prices have risen by three-quarters since 1993. “It’s dangling under your nose but really, you feel, it ain’t there.”The distinguishing feature of this mini-boom, as compared with its Eighties equivalent, is that this time around a sense of anxiety follows quick on the heels of any initial elation You might call it windfall stress. “One wacky idea was to buy a run-down Victorian cottage in the countryside and commute in,” he says. But he soon discovered that most of the properties within 100 miles of London have also gone up.

“I could deck out the bathroom in gold plate and make the place as beautiful as possible, but I can’t actually buy anything better,” he says ruefully. “Yet there’s a psychological pressure to sell – a feeling that this cannot last forever.”He describes his situation as “double-edged” – there’s a genuine rush of excitement as well as a fear that this potential windfall could easily slip through his hands. Forget the National Lottery for immediate fantasy escapism. “It’s awful to be offered, in theory, the chance to solve all your financial problems but somehow make the wrong decision,” he says. In 1997 the property market is a far more potent creator of wild pipe dreams.

Ask your local valuer to drop in – probably the most invited guest in town, especially in London – and suddenly life is rich with opportunity. Peter, 33 and a graphic designer, describes how his one-bedroom flat in Islington soared in value from pounds 90,000 to pounds 150,000. “The first thing I did after the valuer came round was to sit down and write a list of things I could do to change my life – go to Thailand, buy a flash car, pay off my Access card and move out of London were the first things to cross my mind,” he says.
Yet, in just a few weeks Peter has sped the distance from joyful amazement to mounting frustration. But as former press officer for Calvin Klein and his famed logo, it’s only one tiny step for Carolyn to become CBK.Fame Prospects: Married or divorced, Carolyn’s sulky and strenuous avoidance of the lens puts a high value on her image as the uncooperative little ice princess.

She frankly doesn’t give a damn, and is thus condemned to eternal fame.. The privileged daughter of a Connecticut doctor ran into JFK Jr jogging in Central Park. In much misogynist reporting, she was deemed to have “played” him with consummate skill, blowing hot, blowing cold, and generally keeping the best-known playboy of the western world on his toes.Career Highs: Carolyn is more noted for her courtship triumphs than her career greats. Indeed, since the triumphant grin she displayed upon wedding her blow-dried bouffant of a groom, Carolyn has rarely been photographed smiling.Blonde Ambition: Ambition has been in observed in Ms Bessette from early on.