Carol returns again to London, this time to study Economics and Law at London Guildhall University.

The first year she commutes in from Essex at the home of her great aunt Rene and uncle Bert and three cousins Sharon, Valerie and Phaedra. With help of Dagenham veteran Bert, Carol buys a second hand Triumph Herald which becomes notorious transport to and from student parties. Splits time between social life at Guildhall and BSG old girl Heather at Westfield College. The second year she is offered student digs so poor that despite a makeover from Mum and Dad she decamps to Stoke Newington and meets aspiring journalist Regina Murgoth.

Her appetite for travel is funded by part time waitressing jobs. Spends vacations touring Egypt with fellow undergraduate and Cairo resident Magda, on an Israeli kibbutz with Pam, interspersed with hitch-hiking adventures in Europe.

Graduates with 2:1 but does not benefit immediately from the city boom so bides her time doing a PA course in Bournemouth. Enters the world of work as PA at Mitsubishi Bank and successfully adopts strategy of doing this so badly that they promote her to the marketing department.