Take 10: Identical Twins

Alice and Lilly Granshaw. Jo Cherrington, mother of one-year-old girls Alice and Lilly Granshaw, is doing her best to treat her daughters as ­individuals: “I’m going to encourage them to do different things.” But ­Alice and Lilly are already a team. “They giggle in their own language. They don’t have much interest in other babies, they’re so busy with each other” Photograph: Mark Johnson

Jean Macpherson and Anne Mallinson. Some twins grow up as individuals from the start, often by circumstance. Jean Macpherson, 78, spent the first two years of her life in hospital with asthma. Then, aged seven, she was packed off to Switzerland for the air, leaving her sister Anne Mallinson ­behind. They were ­reunited a year later as war evacuees, sent first to Devon, then to Canada. But Jean got ­engaged at 22 and moved to Scotland with her husband, Sir Tommy Macpherson. In the last 20 years, as Jean and Tommy have spent more time in London, the sisters have grown closer, and now live just 500 yards apart. “We’re very admiring of each other, and supportive,” Anne says. “We feel lucky. Having my sister enriches my life” Photograph: Mark Johnson

Amie Curtis and Julie Stenner. The first thing Amie ­Curtis, 27, ever did without her sister Julie Stenner was get on a bus, aged 16: “It was ­really weird. I didn’t have anyone to talk to.” This ­extreme reliance on another human being is both the best and worst ­aspect of ­being an identical twin. “We’re so close, I feel blessed to have that, but I wonder if I’d be more outgoing if I’d been on my own. We’ve never ­really needed to make friends” Photograph: Mark Johnson

Peter and Neil Davey. For Peter Davey, 48, the bond with his brother Neil has grown stronger with age. “We often use facial ­expressions instead of words as we know each other so well. And our text messages constantly cross. It’s small stuff really, but it adds up” Photograph: Mark Johnson

Fifi and Coco Tobin Photograph: Mark Johnson