Characters Flashcards
(10 cards)
Hortense Roberts
Born illegitimate in Jamaica, daughter of a well known politician and a maid. Goes on a journey during the novel. At the start she is stuck up, arrogant and self centred. By the end she has become more humble and has learned to love Gilbert for his good qualities.
Gilbert Joseph
Fought in the RAF during WW2, then returned to Jamaica and entered disastrous business ventures with his cousin before returning to England after marrying Hortense. Cocky, impatient and self-centred at first, he learns to empathise with Hortense, comforts her when she is rejected from a teaching job and learns to love her for her strength of character.
Queenie Buxton
Born and brought up on the family farm in the countryside, then moved to London for better opportunities. She married Bernard despite her misgivings. Ambitious and often disappointed by the realities of her life. Often self-deprecating and rather cynical about her experiences. Passionate.
Bernard Bligh
Originally a bank clerk. Dull and unexceptional - seems to represent the majority of white middle class British men. Racist. Experiences horrors of war in India. Loves Queenie and offers to keep the baby for her sake. The future of their marriage is ambiguous at the end of the book.
Arthur Bligh
Bernard’s father, shell shocked in WW1. Lives with Queenie and Bernard and forms a bond with Queenie. Killed in WW2 during a riot originating in racism towards Gilbert.
Celia Langley
Hortense’s ‘friend’ at the teacher training college - really her rival. Hortense unscrupulously exploits the mental illness of Celia’s mother in order to take Gilbert, originally Celia’s boyfriend, for herself.
Michael Roberts
Hortense’s cousin’s son - they grew up together. During the war he stays at Queenie’s house and they have sex. Later he goes missing in action. After the war he visits Queenie again and they briefly rekindle their affair, resulting in her pregnancy. A comic villain.
Winston & Kenneth
Comic twins - no-one can tell them apart and they often pretend to be each other. Provide Gilbert and Hortense with their new home.
Miss Jewel
Hortense’s grandmother, but calls her ‘Miss’ in public due to their different social positions. Her hilarious dialect version of Wordsworth poem encapsulates the absurdity of the colonial curriculum taught in Jamaican schools.
Mr Todd
A neighbour of Queenie’s who has typically racist views and disapproves of Queenie allowing black lodgers in her house. (Also the Smiths, who move out of the area for the same reason).
