Some of My Favourite Characters in Literature

 

 This month's blog hop topic is What was/is your all-time favourite character(s) in literature and why. I feel War and Peace coming on (if not Poor Fellow My Country) but I shall endeavour to keep this post brief and to the point.

As with favourite tunes and books or even foods, I put my favourite characters into categories. I remember a time when I was asked to write about my ideal dinner party guests, choosing from a range of deceased and fictional characters. The seven I chose then would probably be different now. I might also consider whether the guests would get along—or even be able to converse intelligibly. For example, Geoffrey Trease’s Alexis Leonides, though he speaks with colloquial 1950s English (though he doesn’t use 1950s idioms) in The Crown of Violet, would really be talking in Socratic Greek. I wouldn’t understand him, for that matter. Even English speakers from too long ago would be a challenge. I looked into how many centuries it takes for a language to become unintelligible when I was writing the Elydian Dawn series.

Leaving aside dinner parties, and the necessity of inter-guest civility, here’s a handful of my current favourite characters. I’ve left out the ones I created myself.

Name: Tamzin Grey.

Source: The Romney Marsh and Punchbowl Farm series by Monica Edwards.

We know Tamzin from the ages of about ten to fifteen… five fictional years which span more than two decades of real time. She is the elder child and only daughter of the Vicar of Westling and his wife in Sussex and, with three close friends, she has adventures in and about the fishing village and also on a Surrey farm. Tamzin is fair haired and grey-eyed, and, although generally a positive character, she has a crusading nature. Often her desire for adventure and setting things right is at war with her upbringing. She can lie convincingly, but she does no intentional harm, holds no grudges and supports her friends. I’ve been fond of Tamzin since first encountering her in my childhood reading. She’s an intriguing person, kind, helpful and determined. Her interests of riding, messing about in boats, camping and creative pursuits aligned very well with mine. Although she is so much younger than me, I think I’ve always thought of her as a slightly-older and much braver friend. A reviewer once said the hallmark of a successful character is one whom one can imagine at any age. Tamzin passes this rule of thumb.

Name: Peter Grant.

Source: The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovich.

Peter is a police constable, a London copper as he styles himself, when he encounters a witness who happens to be a ghost. His dad is a retired jazz player and his mum a cleaner from Sierra Leone, so Peter, accustomed to rugged individualists, accepts the ghost with slightly less incredulity than some of his peers might have. The major consequence for him is that he becomes an apprentice to Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the lone policeman in charge of the department that deals with supernatural occurrences –what Peter refers to as weird bollocks—working out of an office called the Folly. Peter’s apprenticeship involves learning to be a wizard, reading vestigia (a kind of energy signature left on objects), and liaising with the demimonde, the shadowy magical and supernatural society that co-exists with humans. Chief among these are the genius-loci, the personifications of rivers and streams. One of these, Beverley Brook, becomes important to Peter on a personal level. Peter is a lovely mix of the pragmatic and the imaginative. He is observant and mostly equable, and quick-witted enough to outsmart some very devious villains. His earlier interest in architecture leads to some detailed descriptions of places. He can be a bit crass, but despite a few social missteps he generally wins the respect of both allies and antagonists. Characteristically, he applies scientific principles to Newtonian magic, and is inclined to give pseudo-jargon names to various aids and gadgets. Toby, the scruffy dog that sees ghosts, can outsmart him…but then he can outsmart just about everyone with the possible exception of Molly, the very odd housekeeper. The reason I like Peter so much, I think, is because he is a totally believable personality. I can accept him as wizard, as copper, as son, apprentice, colleague, lover, husband, friend and—lately—father. If weird bollocks is unnerving you, call for Peter. He might handcuff it, chuck a were-light at it, or bamboozle it with architectural fact. If all else fails, he’ll call on Bev to influence the waters or on Toby or one of the foxes to bite it. Just don’t ask for one of his mum’s curries. Your mouth might never be the same.

If I go into detail about all my favourites we’ll still be here next Tuesday, so here are a few more in brief. These characters appeared in just one or two books, but they still managed to make an impact.

Name: Katherine “Kate” Sutton.

Source: The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Marie Pope

Kate is a Tudor lady in waiting who, exiled by Queen Mary for something her younger sister did, is banished to a distant estate—the Perilous Gard. Here she becomes embroiled with a family mourning for a lost child and, following the younger son into the well, finds herself in a battle for her mind, heart and very self. Kate is loving, loyal and pragmatic—and very much deserves her happy ending. She knows more about draining land than she considers strictly necessary.

Name: Heather Gough.

Source: Witchbank, by Catherine Jinks

Heather is not very good at anything. Stuck with a long commute to a dull job in a bank, Heather gradually realises she does have a talent—for invisibility. Cautiously, she makes friends with Jasper, the I.T. guy who services the bank’s many computers and who can actually see her... When someone gets trapped on a floppy disk, Heather’s ingenuity and determination is stretched almost to breaking point. Heather is a quiet heroine, who discovers strength she never knew she had.

Name: Maree Mallory and Rupert Venables.

Source: Deep Secret, by Diana Wynne Jones

Maree and Rupert are one of my favourite couples. Rupert, the youngest Magid (sort of magical policeman) on Earth, is given a list of possible new recruits. He discounts Maree, a heartbroken, bespectacled, sad sack of a woman, immediately, but the others prove even less possible, so he reluctantly begins his assessment. Maree, seeing him as the prat Venables is highly unwilling to be assessed, but that’s before a wounded centaur flees through the science fiction convention they are both attending. Rupert is stiff, cool, impatient, superior and annoying, and Maree is despairing and self-defeating, but together they make a formidable team. They bring out the best in one another and that’s why I like them.

  Name: Sophie Hatter and Howell Jenkins.

Source: Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones

Sophie is a quiet girl, like Heather Gough, stuck in a rut and quietly despairing herself into a grey haze. When the Witch of the Waste turns her into an old woman, Sophie considers herself not much worse off. With the courage of someone to whom nothing much matters, she heads to the lair of Wizard Howl, who is reputed to eat the hearts of maidens, determined to prevent him from courting her sister. Howl, vain, slippery and exasperating, is not a cannibal. In fact, he’s a twenty-seven-year-old Welshman who is able to travel (no explanation is given) between his hometown (1980s Cardiff) and the land of Ingary. Howl is annoyed when Sophie starts cleaning up his castle, but he comes to admire her and, when forced into a corner, proves himself both brave and loyal… Like Maree and Rupert, these two complement one another beautifully.

Others-

Valancy Stirling from LM Montgomery’s The Blue Castle. Valancy, like Sophie, has little to lose, so she grabs life and makes the most of it.

Polly Meridian from Sally Rogers Davidson’s Polymer. Polly is a enjoying the college dance when the aliens invade. Terrified… yes, but Polly won’t let a little thing like being abducted into space get her down.

Oh, and then there’s Lucy Swift from a series called The Vampire Knitting Club, by Nancy Warren. Gotta love a woman who runs a knitting shop when she can’t knit, and finds her life taken over by vampires who are more interested in shawls and socks than polishing their fangs…

Here are my fellow Blog Hoppers. Do visit their blogs to hear their take on this subject.

 

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com

Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooksmark2.blogspot.com (me)

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3vC