Susan started life in an overcrowded council house on the village green and it's no surprise that she's always wanted to better herself. Unfortunately she had to marry Neil Carte when she became pregnant in 1984 and he has never shared her ambition.
Susan has two children, Emma and Christopher, who was born with a cleft palate and a hare lip. Susan was devastated, although Christopher’s initial operation was successful.
Her sense of family duty was to land her in prison in 1993 when she sheltered her brother Clive Horrobin who was on the run. Clive had raided the Village Shop, terrorising Betty in the process. Poor Susan was sentenced to six months for seeking to pervert the cause of justice.
When she was released after three months, she found it difficult to talk about her experience, and she and Neil had to work very hard to bring their relationship safely through this trauma.
Susan was very happy when Neil worked as a sales rep and miserable when he returned to his first love, working on the land with pigs. Susan thinks pigs are dirty, although it was thanks to a pig that she started going out with Neil in the first place. Ironically she's so hard up since the surgery shut down that she has to earn some cash by packing organic sausages for Tom Archer! She's proud and excited about the new house Neil is building for her, even though it means living in a caravan. She softened towards son Christopher's ambition to become a farrier when she learned how much he could earn, and is pleased about Emma's wedding - even though it's to a Grundy. She's taken aback with the speed of Emma's pregnancy, and would be even more so if she knew the possible father!