The Major Characters
The Minor Characters A-E
The Minor Characters F-J
The Minor Characters K-O
The Minor Characters P-T (pending)
The Minor Characters U-Z (pending)

-A-

Grant Annandale. (Appears in ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Martine’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’. ‘Daughters’ and ‘Sofia’). He is the Keyboard player with Debbie Stewart’s band, ‘Xeroed’. Like most of the band he comes from Saltbury and met Debbie in the 1960s at Saltbury High School. He was a late joiner of the band and came in with his friend Nige. He has short blonde hair and female fans find him attractive. He is gay, however, and when we first meet him in 2001 he is married to Rich Telford, the band’s sound engineer. Rich found him more than a little capricious at first but by the time of the Saltbury books they are a long established, devoted and happy couple.

Claire Anstell.  (Appears in ‘Carol’).  She is the student for whom June Brassington left Jenny Marlow in the summer of 2005: the second time she broke up with Jenny.  June seems to like much younger girlfriends.  Claire brings June to a University GaySoc disco in the September, where Jenny is also present.  June starts to try and get Jenny back and Claire storms off.  But by then Jenny has had enough of her and tells June to get lost.

Beryl Armitage.  (Mentioned in ‘Carol’ and ‘Gold’).  She is one of the two Games teachers at Saltbury High School at the same time that Carol Baxter holds the same position at St. Ann’s.

Betty Armitage.  (Appears in Wyeburn Station’).  No relation of Beryl, above, she is a 30 year old window cleaner in partnership with her father.  She was a classmate of Róisin Fauld at St. Ann’s.  The pair do the ‘Cottage’ windows and later Haze and Annie’s at the station.  She’s a cheerful soul, much given to tuneless whistling as she works.

Helen Armstrong. (Appears in ‘Annie’.  Mentioned in ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, Sisters, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Gold’). Helen was at University with Roisin Fauld, although she read Business Studies, not History like Roshie. She is the same age as Roisin (so born 1982), about 5′ 6″ tall with brunette hair that glows slightly red when the sun catches it. Hazel met her when visiting Roshie at University and found her patronising. Helen plays bass and met Roisin when auditioning (unsuccessfully) for her band.  They because close friends. She and Roisin had a brief affair before Rosh got together with her future husband, Colin. .  She tries unsuccessfully to seduce Tina during a modelling assignment on Antigua.

Varun and Farah Arya.  (Appear in ‘History Girls’. Mentioned in ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’).   They are a married couple of Indian servants who come to Britain with George Prodnoze when he comes over after his family died in a cholera outbreak.  They are as much close friends as servants in reality having helped each other through Cholera. They actually prove to be a lesbian couple, but then George too is a woman.

Natasha (Tasha) Atkinson.  (Appears in ‘Wyeburn Station’).  Tasha is a strangely formal school-leaver who is Faulds Fashions receptionist in 2011.  She seems determined not to call more than one person in the firm by the same name, so she calls Hazel Fauld, ‘Miss Fauld’, even though she’s now married to Annie.  She can’t be Mrs Fauld, because that’s her mother, Martine, but to her Hazel is Hazel Clearwater, so she can’t be that either.  She’s the same with everyone.

-B-

Radhika Bakshi.  (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Gold’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Sofia’.  Mentioned in ‘Carol’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Millie’).    She was at St. Ann’s in the same year as Roisin Fauld and the two were close friends.  She is of Hindu Indian extraction, dark skinned, black haired, slim and beautiful.  Hazel is startled to come across her at the ‘Gemini’ club and at first thinks she must go there like her sister for the chance of dancing without getting hit on by men.  However she turns out to be gay and more amazing still, interested in Haze.  They dance for much of an evening, but when Radhika tried to kiss her, Hazel panics and flees.  This is just a few weeks after Annie was harmed and she is nowhere near ready to move on and find another lover.  Even so, Hazel likes Radhika and if she’s honest, she fancies her rotten, so at the same time she knows that in other circumstances this is someone she would badly like to know better and she ends up going home in tears.  Eventually they manage to form a platonic relationship, even though there remains a part of both that would like more.  Later, when Jenny Marlow and June Brassington break up, Radhika starts to date June. It doesn’t go well. To everyone’s surprise she eventually dates Lia Blantyre, the nasty internalised homophobe who is trying to reform.  Lia falls hopelessly in love with her and they turn out to be ideally suited.  Indeed, Radhika proposes at Tina’s wedding and is gleefully accepted. By the time of ‘Millie’ they’re long married.  They don’t have children.

Chantel Barham. (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ ‘Chantel’,and Wyeburn Station’. Mentioned in ‘Annie’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Sofia’). She prefers to be known as the Captain, or Skipper. She is one of the so called ‘Dockers’ who are Sappho’s lesbian club regulars. She is skipper of a Thames tug called the ‘Anne Lister’ whose name commemorates the famous 19th century landowner and lesbian diarist. Hazel Fauld and her come close to falling in love when Hazel is starting to come to terms with Annie and her being over. There is a huge, 37 year, age difference. When they meet in late 2004 Hazel is 19 and the Skipper 56. She was born on 26th April, 1948, so is 7 years older than Hazel’s birth-mother Martine, and 9 years older than Deb. It doesn’t bother Hazel but the Skipper decides she can’t do it. Chantel is 5′ 4″ tall, stocky and wears nautical work clothes and a captains cap. She has short fair hair and smokes a pipe. The latter is almost a permanent feature which remains clamped between her teeth most of the time, especially when she’s working. It is often unlit, almost in the manner of a dummy. She is distinctly busty, although that isn’t apparent at first sight under donkey jackets and pullovers. Her father was also a tug skipper, who started in steam days. Chantel was daddy’s little beloved and he had wanted her to get a nice clean job in the dock offices, but she loved life on the water and was determined to crew for him. He trained her almost to humor her, thinking that he was anyway just giving her a job until she got married. The Skipper likes to provide youngsters who have gone astray with crew training positions. At the time of ‘Rachel’ she has 18 year old Mikey aboard. He adores her as a sort of surrogate Grandma, however much he pretends otherwise. She eventually marries the ‘Sappho’s bouncer, Ruby.

Frederick (Fred) Barham.  (Appears in ‘Chantel’).  He was Chantel Barham’s father.  He would have been born in the early 1920s.  His own father was a stevedore on the London docks, but he wanted to be on the water.  He considered joining the merchant navy, but eventually went on the tugs, something for which he was grateful when war came, even though he had to live through the Blitz.  He began on steam tugs, then became a skipper and graduated to diesel.  Eventually he managed to buy and restore a tug that had been damaged in the bombing, and this became an owner skipper.  Chantel was his only child.  His wife drowned herself while suffering from acute post-natal depression and he never remarried so he brought up his daughter alone and the two were very close.  He wanted Chantel to get a nice clean office job and settle down, but she was determined to follow him onto the tugs.  He knew she was gay, but never really faced up to it.  Even so, once she had her skipper’s license he was immensely proud of her.  He was dead by the time Chantel met Hazel Fauld in 2004.

Gareth (Gary) Baxter. (Appears in’ Annie’, ‘Carol’, ‘Loren’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘Red’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Sofia’). Gary is Carol Baxter’s 18 month older brother. He was the first to take Carol seriously as a child, and while her mother and grandmother were determined to turn her into a cute little girlie girl, he was happy to treat her as a kid brother and let her join in the boys games. The two remain very close although they tease each other mercilessly. He is not very sporty and tends to tease Carol about her passion for athletics which he calls ‘running round in circles’. Like his sister, he is a teacher, but Biology not Sports. They do share a love for music though, and go to gigs together. They look very similar, almost like boy/girl twins. They are much of a height, both have long straw blond hair (Gary’s being slightly the longer). They also share their fathers disconcertingly blue eyes. They have a jokey competitiveness, and very similar taste in women so Gary feels entitled to try to chat up Carol’s girlfriends. Carol says he has a proprietorial attitude to women, but in later times, he has a distinctly on/off relationship with Katie Ralstrick. Here the hunter becomes the hunted and Katie treats him as a plaything. When his sister marries Tina Burns, he acts as sperm donor when Tina gets pregnant with their daughter, Millie and actually proves a devoted Dad.

Gordon Baxter. (Appears in ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Loren’ , ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Rachel’ and ‘Sisters’.) Gordon is Carol and Gary Baxter’s father. He is a former international level athlete, who competed in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, which in the Saltbury Universe were held in Delhi and Vancouver. He was widely thought to have done less well then he deserved to in these events, because of the greater prevalence of drug cheats in his day. Indeed some people thought him foolish at the time for his determination to stay clean. He retired a disappointed man and had a serious brush with the bottle before coming back from the brink. He is now coach at the Saltbury Athletics Club as well as being his daughter’s coach. He has no problem with the fact that it is his daughter not his son who wants to follow in his footsteps. He also has no problem that Carol is gay, although he is easily embarrassed when she openly displays affection with a girlfriend. He and Carol are very blunt with one another, swearing at each other happily, but they dote on one-another and seldom mean it in more than fun. Carol says that his coaching technique is to hurl abuse at her until she runs faster. He likes nicknames, almost at once starting to call Tina ‘Red’, because of her flame red hair. Carol is ‘Chick’, short for ‘Chickpea’, and Loren is ‘Goldie’. As a hobby he and his wife Sheila are great ballroom dancers. He was born in 1958. He and Sheila live at 18. Laburnum Close, Saltbury. He becomes devoted to his granddaughter, ‘Millie’, who he nicknames ‘Cub’ and is one of the first to recognise her athletic potential.

Millicent (Millie) Baxter (Snr). (Appears in ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Red’, ‘History Girls’ and ‘Loren’.) She is Gordon Baxter’s elderly (b. 1933) mother. She comes on at times as stern, tactless and rather over blunt, but usually has a disarming twinkle in her eye. Carol, who can’t stand her maternal grandmother, adores her and eventually insists on naming her daughter after her. Unlike her other grandma, who is deep in denial, Millie accepts Carol’s sexuality. Her comment on one girlfriend (Tina) being: “she’s a bit of alright you lucky girl!” She is thrilled when Tina and Carol name their daughter (her great grandchild), Millie, after her.

Millicent (Millie) Louise Baxter. (Appears in ‘Red’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Millie’.  Born in ‘Wyeburn Station’.  Mentioned in ‘Sofia’). She is the daughter of Tina and Carol Baxter and named after Millie Snr, her Great Grandmother. She was born on 12th April 2012. Rather to Carol’s horror she is an almost militantly girlie little girl. She likes pink, frills and dollies’ tea parties, although she does not like clearing up after herself. Her father (by AI much against his joking desires) is Carol’s brother Gary. She was born on the same day as ex St. Ann’s hockey captain, Kalinda Patel’s daughter Nidhi.  Nidhi is actually about an hour older, something the girls giggle about when they are a bit older and best friends.  Despite her white British father, Nidhi is very Indian in appearance, with black hair and skin far more like her mother’s than her father’s, but Carol nicknames her and pale, red haired Millie the twins, because of their shared birthday.  In practice Kalinda and the Baxters move in different circles.  But the girls met again at Primary school and soon became friends.  By the time they are both 11 and heading to St. Ann’s they are virtually inseparable, having frequent sleepovers at each other’s houses.  They are something of the bored pre-teens at that age.  Everything is boring and all they seem to want to do is to sit on one or the other’s beds glued to their phones, texting schoolmates they have only just seen, but never actually ringing to speak with them.  It drives Carol mad as she was hoping for a would be athlete she can train to break her own records.  She was hoping for something like the close trainer/runner relationship she had with her father.  Teen was hoping for something like the partnership she had with her own father over gardening.  To Millie, running, gardening, the law and pretty much everything else is “Boring”.  Meanwhile Kalinda is trying to interest Nidhi in hockey, with a similar lack of success.  It’s as if the girls think being interested in anything is un-cool, that is until Tina and Carol drag them (protesting loudly) to watch Tina row, when she becomes keen to learn, then an accomplished, enthusiastic oarswoman.

Sheila Baxter (née Mortimer). (Appears in ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Loren’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, and ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘Wyeburn Station’). She is Carol and Gary Baxter’s chain smoking mother. She disapproves of Carol’s tomboy looks and her lesbianism, although at Carol’s age she is realistic enough to know that it is not just a phase, and has come to like Carol’s past girlfriends, particularly Angela. Through ‘Red’ and into ‘Carol’ we see her gradually melting a little towards Tina and by the time they marry in ‘Gold’ she has become welcoming. She is much less sporty than her husband and daughter and is a tiny bit jealous at the devotion Gordon shows to Carol’s training, thinking that she comes second best to her daughter in Gordon’s eyes. Her older sister Grace was a pole vaulter in her youth, though and introduced her to her future husband. She is a huge ballroom dancing fan, something she and Gordon share, and they knew Tina’s parents from the days of their youth, when Des and Mary Burns were local champions. She and Gordon live at 18. Laburnum Close, Saltbury. Her mother, Elsbeth Mortimer, lives a couple of houses further down the Close and the two tried too hard to turn the infant Carol into a sweet little cutsie thing.  To say the least, it didn’t go well. .  She becomes a devoted Grandma to Millie Baxter and like Mary Burns loves baby-sitting to give Carol and Tina a night out.

Alexandra (Lexi) Beaumont. (Appears in ‘Carol’, ‘History Girls’ ‘Lexi’, and ‘Gold’.  Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Millie’).  Lexi is Rosie Drymen’s girlfriend at University and beyond, and a year older than her.  She is bi-sexual, rather than lesbian and has a boyfriend when we first meet her.  She was born on 3rd August 1984 and is exactly the same height as Rosie at 5′ 5″.  The two are in the same hall of residence and met in Rosie’s Freshers’ week in 2004, when Lexi was assigned to show her the ropes.  Both study history.  She is perhaps more stereotypically stud lesbian than any of our other heroines.  She has dyed purple hair cut very short and is physically stocky, although not fat.  She tends to wear sports bras to disguise or at least minimise her breasts, and so look more boyish, and she generally wears men’s clothes.  However, she was much more feminine when she first met Rosie, because of family pressure and had waist-length brown hair.  Rosie supports her transition, rather to Tina Burns’ surprise.  Lexi eventually gives Rosie the confidence to come out and be publicly a couple. .  By 2008 when she appears in ‘Gold’ she is a history teacher and has toned down the stud a bit. By the time of ‘Millie’, she and Rosie are living in Cumbria, long married and happy.  They don’t have children.

April Benson.  (Appears in ‘Gold’).  She is the seven year old daughter of Jenny Benson (formerly St. Ann’s Games teacher, Miss Glover) and even at that age she is very keen on sport, especially athletics.  At the time Carol Baxter is away for the 2008 Olympics, her mother takes over the training of Carol’s ‘Specials’ and April attends with enthusiasm.

Ivy Benson.  (Appears in ‘Martine’. Mentioned in ‘Daughters’).  Was the mother of Jemima, below.  She kept the Wyeburn village shop for decades until her death in 1996, when Hazel Fauld was 11.  She was a bit of a dictator in her own little kingdom, friendly to everyone, but a tyrant over her daughter who acted as her assistant.

Miss Jemima Benson. (Mentioned in ‘Daughters’). She worked for her mother in the Wyeburn village shop until it closed and then helped with restarting it as a volunteer-run community shop. She is 62 and had worked for her mother most of her life, being treated pretty much as a skivvy, but she turns out to be full of ideas for making the shop pay which her mother would never even listen to. . The ‘Miss’ is somehow very much part of her persona.

Mrs Jenny Benson.  See Jenny Glover.  She has a daughter, April Benson.

Tracy Bentyne. (Mentioned in ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’.). She teaches Citizenship at St. Ann’s School for Girls and also takes 6th form General Studies classes. She causes amusement amongst the pupils because she models herself so obviously on the elderly headmistress Miss Stone, down to the half moon glasses on a chain round her neck and the bun held together with hair pins. She can’t quite match the steel grey hair, being 26 and a rich brunette. Fear not though, she’ll achieve old age sooner or later.

Ruth and George Beresford. (Mentioned in ‘Red’ and ‘Carol’). They are leading lights in the Saltbury branch of the teachers union and friends of Carol Baxter. They are active socialites keen on organising diner parties and events designed to ‘bring people together’. Certainly, they were instrumental in bringing Carol and Angela together, which may or may not be reckoned a good thing.

Dr. Phillis Black. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Carol’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Yvonne’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘Fracture’ and ‘Sofia’). She is the Head of Chemistry at St Ann’s school and is predictably known by the nickname ‘Blackie’. She used to coach the first hockey team and remains a great hockey fan, much struck by Annie Robert’s talent. She is probably the person closest to Carol Baxter amongst her older colleagues. She is in her late 40s at the time of ‘Haze’. She is an inspiring teacher, who Hazel and Tina love. She was also one of the first people to take Yvonne Wright seriously when she decided to reform. She encouraged her in her ambition to become a vet, for which studying Chemistry was a must. In ‘Gold’, Carol Baxter calls her in to help make sense of the document they find hidden in a relay baton from the Olympics.  By the time Sofie and Danielle Fauld are at St. Ann’s, Miss Stone has retired and Dr. Black is headmistress of St’ Ann’s, Miss Stone having finally retired.

Aurelia (Lia) Blantyre. (Appears in ‘Daughters’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Sofia’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Millie’). She joins St. Ann’s School in the Upper Sixth halfway through the Michaelmas term, when her parents move into the Saltbury area. She has a sweet smile and is friendly to almost everyone, especially Tina Burns who worships her at first. But she turns out to be deeply disturbed. She has black hair in a 1920s looking bob cut. She is quite sporty and almost, but not quite, good enough to be selected for the hockey team, something she hates Yvonne Wright for, as hockey captain. She is expelled from St. Ann’s, but four years later she reappears in Saltbury seeking redemption.  Eventually she starts to date Radhika and much to everyone else’s surprise the relationship is a great success. Ten years later in ‘Sofia’ the two are happily married.  They don’t have children.  Radhika is a successful business woman.  Lia is an IT specialist and her once shaky mental health now seems a distant memory.  She actually uses her skills to save Cassie and Ash’s relationship when the evil Jade uses nude images of Ash stolen off Cassie’s phone to make it look like she and Ash were having an affair.

Gavin Blantyre. (Appears in ‘Daughters’. Mentioned in ‘Fracture’). He is Lia Blantyre’s father. He is a senior engineer with the same firm that Annie’s parents work for. He is the immediate boss of Phoebe Watkins’ father. He dotes on his daughter, but makes no excuses for her. He is worried sick by her behaviour. He is utterly delighted when she eventually gets together with Radhika.

Svetlana Boreshkova.  (Appears in ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘History Girls’ and ‘Millie’).   Svetlana is an athlete from the former Soviet vassal and now corrupt dictatorship, the Democratic Republic of Mourania.  She becomes a close friend of Carol Baxter.  She is 7 years younger than Carol, so 22 at the 2008 Olympics. She wins silver in the mile coming in second when Carol wins gold by a whisker.  Likewise, she came second to Carol in the 2006 European Championships 1,500m.  Both women beat the previous world record at the Olympics.  Her real event, though, is the 4 x 400m relay and she was on the team that won gold in the Olympics, also beating the world record.  She gives Carol the baton she was using when they won as an engagement present.  She has a boyfriend, Sergei Skryvatkov, a University biochemist six years her senior. She is petite, but wiry and athletic.  Tina says she was like a delicate porcelain doll, but in running gear rather than crinolines.  She is fair haired, but not blonde.  She has a high cheekboned, east European face, with a winning smile. After the Olympics she defects and helps Loren foil a drug cheating scandal.  She had political asylum in the UK for years, but when a democratic government came to power in her homeland she was asked back as Minister for Sport.  There was an attempt on her life during a failed coup, which left her car riddled with bullet-holes, but Svetlana herself unharmed, and we meet her again in ‘Millie’ when Tina, Millie and Carol encounter her on an official visit to the ‘Westies’.  She is impressed with Millie’s sporty build.

Miranda Bourne.  (Appears in ‘Debbie’s Gift’).  She is the rather humourless record company rep from Quintipus Records who handles ‘Fauld’ when they are first signed to the company.  Hazel thinks she is more a bureaucrat than a music fan.  None of the band are impressed, although actually she fully accepts what they record.

Jessica (Jess) Bowers. (Mentioned in ‘Haze’ and ‘Annie’). Jess is Annie Robert’s beloved keyboard teacher. She is one of the few in the Saltbury area able to teach at her level with synth and rock keyboards, not just classical piano. She is fussy about the students she takes, but the two hit it off right from the beginning. Annie has her lesson after school on Tuesdays. Jess is a friend of ‘Xeroed’ multi-instrumentalist Stevie Hides and it was Stevie who recommended Annie and Jess to each other.

Aimee Bowes. (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’). She is Hazel Fauld’s best friend at University. She is the same height as Annie and has a similar blonde pixie cut, which is what first attracts Hazel’s interest, but she is otherwise very different. She is straight, and has a boyfriend, Martin, back home to whom she is utterly devoted, even though the two don’t get to see each other very often. He is at a University in the Midlands. Like Haze, one of her parents is a name fashion designer, in her case, her father, Howard. She is in a hall or residence, St Bernadette’s. She and Hazel work with another friend, Michelle Declan, a production engineering student, on projects much as Penny, Martine and the older Hazel used to do. She is 5’ 7”, has blue eyes, long legs and a lovely smile and can look disturbingly like Annie Roberts, superficially at least. Later, she and Hazel remain close friends and continue to work together on film costume projects, well after they have left university.

Howard Bowes.  (Appears in ‘Roisin’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Fracture’).  He is a big name fashion designer and a friend of Martine Fauld.  His daughter, Aimee, becomes Hazel Fauld’s best friend at University.

Paul Brammer. (Appears in ‘History Girls’, ‘Yvonne’. and ‘Fracture’. Mentioned in ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’). He is the barman at the ‘Gemini Club’ and a friend of Yvonne Wright. He is middle aged, being said to have been in the job: ‘since Eve was still chatting up snakes in a tree.’ He is gay and almost stereotype camp, calling people Ducky, Sweetie, Missy and so on. He has a long term boyfriend called Simon to whom he is devoted.

Arthur Brassington.    (Appears in ‘Gold’)  He is the suave owner and manager of Brassington’s, the posh independant jewellers in the High Street in Saltbury.  He now runs the business with his daughter, June.  He likes to ‘collect’ famous customers, having a little display of photos in the shop and is particularly keep to get Olympic medallist Carol Baxter when she and Tina go in to buy their engagement rings.  He’s also the father of fickle June Brassington.

June Brassington. (Appears in ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘History Girls’ and ‘Fracture’. Mentioned in ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Gold’). She co-runs Brassington’s jewellers in Saltbury High Street with her father, Arthur. She is the girlfriend of Hazel’s friend Jenny Marlow. She is eight years older than Jenny, and the two met when Jenny had a holiday job in the shop. She has long mahogany hair and is 5′ 6″ tall. In the Michaelmas term of 2004, however, they split up for a while, but they eventually split for good in July 2005.  She briefly gets into a relationship with Carol Baxter’s ex, Angela, but some months later Ange deserts her for Susie, the curator of Saltbury Museum.  She eventually starts dating Roisin Fauld’s old school friend, Radhika Bakshi but behaves no better.  She doesn’t really mean to break hearts; she’s just fickle and thoughtless.

Sapphire Breydon.  (Mentioned in ‘Sandie’)  This is the pen name of Brenda Sibbald, the Professor of English Literature at Saltbury University.  She writes a series of lesbian fiction books based in a small town called Ulthorpe in Hampshire, which is actually based on Saltbury.  She is, in fact, a thinly disguised Jo Brodie.

Brian and Dave.  (Appear in ‘Gold’)  The pair are Police Officers.  We are not told their surnames, but they are Saltbury Police’s armed response squad and the only trained firearms officers in the town.  They are summoned when an armed man burgles Carol and Tina’s house, but despite sirens, flashing lights and a fast car, WPC Dorothy Brightbank, keeping strictly to the speed limit, manages to get to the scene first.

Miss Bridges. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’ and ‘Carol’. Mentioned in ‘Fracture’). She is the elderly School Secretary at St. Ann’s. Her desk is immediately outside the office of the formidable headmistress, Miss Stone, to whom she is “sidekick, bodyguard, gatekeeper and acolyte”. No one knows her first name except Miss Stone, and even she calls her “Miss Bridges”. She, in turn, always calls Miss Stone “Headmistress”. They are very close nevertheless. No one gets to see Miss Stone without going through Miss Bridges and the whole school, teachers and pupils alike, see her as a barometer of the Headmistresses mood. As Tina Burns puts it: ‘if she smiled and called me Christine (never Tina), all was well. But if she called you Miss Burns, or for that matter Miss Baxter, you were in trouble’.

Vic (Vickie) Briggs. (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Chantel’. Mentioned in ‘Roisin’). She is one of the Sappho’s ‘Dockers’ and has a fling with Hazel Fauld. She tries to keep her real name secret from Hazel, who refers to her as ‘not Daphne and not Annie’. She is in her mid 50s and likes to dress as a Bertie Wooster period man, complete with short back and sides and monocle. But she does it with intentional irony, dressing as a stereotype lesbian of the period. The trouble is that Hazel doesn’t get the joke. She is too young.

Dorothy (Dot) Brightbank. (Appears in ‘Annie’ and ‘Daughters’ and ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Millie’). She is a cheeky miss in the year below Hazel and Tina at school. She loves teasing, although there is no real harm in her. In 2001 when the stories begin she was a 4th former and spread gossip that her younger sister Mandy had seen Miss Baxter kissing the Athletics Club coach – causing the school to start thinking he’s her sugar daddy (he is actually her father). She also led celebrations when Queen Bee Bev Dean was expelled, leading a rendition of ‘Ding dong the witch is dead’ in assembly that the whole schools joins in. She is 5′ 4″, rather plump and giggles a lot. Haze and Teen are never quite sure whether they think she’s funny, annoying or both. After her school days, she joins the Police and she is first on the scene when Carol and Tina are burgled.  She has perhaps watched too many Police shows on TV and likes to fit the image, so she wears mirrored sunglasses and drives her Inspector mad, by calling him ‘Guv’.  She has a sidekick/partner, Probationary WPC Alice Gove, who calls her skipper, who she bosses about and nags, but also banters with.  Both are rather giggly, with an irreverent sense of humour.   Although now an adult, she still calls Carol by her school teacher honorific: ‘Miss’.

Mandy (Amanda) Brightbank.  (Appears in ‘Red ‘Fracture’ and ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Carol’ and ‘Daughters’). She is the two year younger sister of Dorothy Brightbank. In ‘Haze’, aged 13, she tells her sister that she has seen Miss Baxter kissing the Athletics Club coach – who is of course, her father Gordon, but the whole school start to think they are dating. By the time of ‘Red’ four years later, she is one of Carol Baxter’s sports mad ‘Special’s and particularly good at the high jump. She reappears in ‘Gold’ in Carol’s Mayoral parade and helping train the ‘Specials’.  By then she is the county women’s high jump champion, now aged 20 and a student.  She wants to be a Games teacher.

Mr. Tarquin Bromyard.  (Appears in ‘Martine’).    He is a distinctly pompous, deeply sexist and painfully young executive of Xeroed’s record company, ‘Quintipus Records’.  He is determined to be called Mr. Bromyard.  He was sent to talk to Deb and Nicky when they had just left school and turned pro.  He tried to persuade them to drop Stevie, who was as yet too young to leave school.  He also wanted Deb to pretend to be a boy because market research tells them that girls can’t play lead guitar.  The pair tell him to get stuffed.  Later he tries to force Deb into overwork to get three albums done in quick sucession.  It doesn’t go well.  He is eventually fired after playing power games with some of the company’s most important female artists and claiming to be sleeping with the CEO, Hester d’Villier.

Zara Elizabeth Browning. (Appears in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Yvonne’. Mentioned in ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’ and ‘Fracture’ and ‘Fracture’). She is one of Saltbury’s only real baddies. Zara is a wealthy femme fatal, and a sadist who seduces and first delights Yvonne Wright, but eventually sexually abuses her and later tries the same thing with Hazel Fauld. She is described as “tall and elegant, with long dark hair, high heels and full breasts”. She speaks with a soft purring, upper class voice. She is a good bit older than Yvonne (32 against 19) and was “expensively dressed in designer bespoke. She wore expertly applied make-up and exquisite jewelry of the sort you most definitely don’t get in Christmas crackers.” She is a highly paid and supremely self confident City of London financial sector employee, with a posh flat and an Aston Martin. She has a thing about redheads. She was born on 27th June, 1971.

Miss Joan Bryony.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Carol’)  She is Burns & Son’s elderly and rather formidable receptionist cum secretary.  She calls Tina and her father Miss Christina and Mr. Desmond, and just about admits that Desmond is the boss as long as he does as he’s told, but Mr. Burns is still in her view very firmly Desmond’s late father, Arthur, who founded the practice and in whose era she started her career. .  In fact Arthur only revived a firm that had been half dead on its feet.  It was really founded before Waterloo by the Holt family. By the time of ‘Millie’ she’s still very much in harness, well past retirement age and still bossy, though hardworking and very loyal.  She insists on calling Tina Mrs Burns, not Mrs Baxter.

Arthur Burns.  (Mentioned in ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’).    Tina Burns’ paternal grandfather. He is regarded as the founder of Burns & Son Solicitors, in Saltbury and his portrait hangs in Reception, although actually he started as an article clerk and then partner in a pre-existing firm founded by John and George Hunt.  Arthur had children late in life and was much older than his son.  He is dead by the time of ‘Haze’.  He died when Tina was 11. By then the firm is run by his son, Desmond, who is Tina Burns’ father.  Arthur was Johnny Sherwin and his father’s Solicitor and acted for ‘Xeroed’.  His old partner, Mr. Hunt was an old man by the time Arthur joined the firm and himself, succeeded his grandfather, the firm’s founder.  As a result, the firm has long generations.  The Hunts were Sir Jeremiah Prodnoze’s lawyers and the firm still acts for his descendant, Dame Evadne.  It also holds a lot of Prodnoze family documents of considerable historical interest. Joan Bryony all but worshipped him.

Desmond Burns.  (Appears in ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Annie’, ‘Rachel’ and ‘Sandie’). He is Tina Burns’ father and a Saltbury lawyer. His legal practice Burns & Son, is in the Market Square in a lovely Regency building opposite the Town Hall. Desmond is the son part of the name, his late father Arthur Burns, being the firm’s founder. As a boy, he went to Saltbury High School and he was in the same class as most of the members of ‘Xeroed’, so he has known Debbie Stewart, Charlie Hides etc. since childhood and is the same age (born in 1956). He met his wife Mary at University and they famously enjoyed a highly charged romantic relationship which they still remember with a mischievous fondness all these years later. They were also local ballroom dance champions. Desmond is devoted to his daughter, who he calls ‘Princess’. The two share a passion for gardening and neither can wait for the day when Tina qualifies and they can work together. They did have one huge row (in ‘Haze’) when Tina was a teenager.  Desmond was hurt that his son wasn’t interested in joining him in the practice and lashed out, making Tina feel very second best, but he has hardly stopped apologising since. After taking a while to adjust, he has no problem with his daughter’s lesbianism, and quickly takes to her girlfriend Sandie, and later Carol. He makes Tina a partner in his law firm as a wedding present.  He’s very supportive when Tina decides to marry Carol, and later when she wants a child.  He dotes on little Millie, although very relieved that Tina wants to keep working after the birth and the two make an excellent partnership.

Mary Burns. (née Jenner). (Appears in ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Sandie’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’  Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’). Mary is Tina Burns’ mother and a redhead like her daughter. She is a St. Ann’s old girl and a Saltbury native, but she only met her Saltbury born husband Desmond at University, where the two had an adventurous time of it, living together and out on the town most nights. They still giggle over their student adventures, although Mary sometimes feels they might have given their daughter a bit too much ammunition when they try to regulate her own life. Mary read physics at University at a time when few women did, and she had planned to go on to postgraduate work, her particular interest being quantum physics. However, her longing for children meant that eventually took a back seat and she became a full time housewife and mother. However, by the time of ‘Red’ she is looking redundancy in the face, as her children fly the nest and she decides to go back to university to do a Masters, and then possibly a Ph.D. She dearly wishes her daughter wasn’t a lesbian, but only because she fears it will complicate her life and because she longs for grandchildren. .  Later as Dr Mary Jenner-Burns she does work on the multiverse theory. She dotes on her grandchildren, Peter and Millie, especially Tina’s daughter Millie, who she gets to see much more often.  She gets her interested in algebra, something that had scared her at first.

Peter (Pete) Burns. (Appears in ‘Annie’ and ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Red’, Sisters, ‘Sandie’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Millie’). Pete is Tina Burns’ five year older brother. He doted on his little sister when she was little and is still very protective towards her. He also taught her useful things that Tina’s mother regards as ‘boy stuff’ like bicycle maintenance. He took a law degree but didn’t want to follow his father as a small town lawyer, something that caused friction between father and son at first. However, he joined the civil service fast track and is doing well in Whitehall. He has a rather snooty metropolitan live-in girlfriend, Xara Templeton who Tina and her father tease by more than playing up to her assumptions about bumpkin provincials. Unlike Tina, Pete has not inherited the Jenner family’s red hair. Unlike his son and sister, his hair is brown like his father’s. At first, Tina and his parents don’t expect his relationship with Xara to last.  They are just so different.  But they marry and are happy together, later producing a son, also called Peter.

Peter Burns Jr.  (Appears in ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Millie’).  Peter is Tina Burn’s nephew.  He is the rather boisterous son of Tina’s older brother Peter and his wife Xara.  He has bright ginger hair that Xara tends to see as a plot by Tina’s Mum’s family the Jenner’s, who are all redheads. He was born in Feb 2007 and is 4 when his mother Xara brings him with her when she gives a lot of his baby things to Tina when she’s expecting Millie.

Xara Burns.  See Xara Templeton.

Peter (Pete) Burrows.  (Appears in ‘Martine’).  He is the owner of an excellent musical instrument shop in Birrens Muse, Hackney, near Jilly Evan’s house.  Debbie Stewart comes to love the place and nicknames it the ‘Toy Shop’.  He in turn has huge respect for Deb, even in her teens, and always makes a special fuss of her when she comes in.  She bought her beloved 12 string guitar there.

-C-

Dr. Edith Campbell.  (Appears in ‘Lexi’).  She is the warden of St. Clair’s College, Rosie and Lexi’s hall of residence at Durham University.

Fiona (Fi) Capnall. (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’.  Mentioned in ‘Gold’). She is the leader of Rachel Holmes’ old band ‘Lex Feminarum’ and was Rachel’s distinctly controlling girlfriend. She is the band’s founder, tyrant, guitarist/vocalist and songwriter. Hazel says that “She looked like a duchess, ravishing, but haughty”. She is blonde, and quite tall at 5′ 7″. She wears denims and crimps her long hair. She is filled with contempt when Rachel gets together with Hazel and then Roisin.

Clara Carruthers.  (Appears in ‘Loren’).   She was Loren Hastings’ ex girlfriend at the time she met Carol Baxter.  They were at school together and had been a couple for a long time before an acrimonious break-up.  Clara is beautiful, aristocratic and more than a little bit vindictive.  In the end she tries to break Loren and Carol up, just out of spite.  But in fact they weren’t yet together at the time and Loren turns the tables to spite Clara.

(Miss) Ethel Carter.  (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’ and ‘History Girls’.  Mentioned in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’).  She is the History teacher at St. Ann’s School for Girls.  She is a dyed in the wool chain smoker who can barely get through a lesson without a cigarette, so she regularly nips out, or arrives late having had one between classes.  She is described as elderly and is probably close to, if not past, retirement age.  History is an option class for St. Ann’s fifth-formers, so all three fifth forms combine for it.  It is thus one of the few classes that Hazel and Tina have with Rosie.  She is a pillar of the local history society, which is based in Saltbury Museum, and is a friend of aristocratic local historian Dame Evadne Jackerman-Prodnoze.  She was born in 1939 and is 67 at the time of ‘History Girls’. i.e. after the official age of retirement.  She is a St. Ann’s old girl, having entered the school in 1950 and started work as a teacher there in 1959.  She lives with an old St. Ann’s colleague, now retired Maths teacher Gwyneth Langenfield, who is 7 years older then her and had actually taught her at school.  They present to the world as two spinsterly old friends, but in fact they are another teacher and ex-pupil lesbian couple, like Tina and Carol, and they too very definitely didn’t get together while Ethel was at school.  Ethel is a rather sweet old thing who tends to call everyone ‘Dear’, usually with their name in front.  So we have Tina Dear, Rosie, Dear, and indeed Gwen Dear.  She knows her beloved is starting to fail and strains every nerve to care for her.  Gwen rather resents how dependent she has become.

Walter Cartwright.  (Mentioned in ‘Aleyse’).  He is Ruth Gregory’s boss, the manager of the branch of Bridewell’s Supermarket where she works, rather reluctantly.  He is a stickler for appearances and expects to be called ‘Mr. Cartright’, but he’s actually a fairly indulgent boss.

Andrew Walter Cernan.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘Roisin’ and ‘Gold’).   He is Sofie Fauld’s childhood best friend.  They met when Sofie first went to the Wyeburn play-group and she loves the dungarees he always wears.  Andrew is slightly older than Sofie, although only by a matter of a few months, so he is just four and she is a little over three and a half when they meet.  He is an only child who lives in the new housing estate to the east of the parish church.  He’s not entirely convinced that tomboyish Sofie is a girl at first.  He generally treats her as a boy which she finds she likes and the two become inseparable.  When he is seven his father walks out on Jackie, his mother, and they are henceforth a single parent family for which Andrew never really forgives him.  By the time he and Sofie are at secondary school they have progressed from mates to boyfriend and girlfriend, although that’s never a total success.  The adult Sofie is bi-sexual rather than a straightforward lesbian, but gradually has to own up to a definite preference for women and they break up when Sofie and her St. Ann’s friend Amber fall in love.  Andrew dates various others after that, although he and Sofie remain very close.  In particularly he falls for a university friend called Jane and is heartbroken when that doesn’t last.  He and Sofie semi get back together when Sofie and Emma break up, but when she falls for Tara Jackerman-Prodnoze a thrupple evolves and then a semi-official three way marriage.  Legally he marries Tara, but with Sofie going through a less legal ceremony with both later the same day at Dowchester Old Hall, with Dame Evadne officiating.

Jackie Cernan.   (Appears in ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, and ‘Wyeburn Station’).  She is the mother of Sofie Fauld’s childhood friend and first boyfriend Andrew.  She is barely half the age of Sofie’s birth mother Deb and had her only child very young.  Her husband abandoned her when Andrew was seven. Years later she takes part in Sofie, Andrew and Tara’s semi-official marriage at Dowchester Old Hall.

Cheng Liu. (Appears in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’. Mentioned in ‘Sisters’). She is a design intern at Faulds at the same time as Hazel, although much longer serving. She more or less supervises Hazel and the two make friends. Liu teaches her non-Goth make-up. She is British of Chinese descent. Cheng is her family name, which is written before the personal name in her parents’ culture. Later, Martine and her partners are impressed enough with her that they give her a permanent job once she graduates.

Cynthia (Cyn) Clearwater.  (Appears in ‘Penny’)  She is Penny Clearwater’s mother.  She was born on 26th July, 1936.  She is gay and lives with her girlfriend, Jessica Plumley, who is two years older than her.  Her mother threw her out when her marriage broke up when it turned out that she was being unfaithful to her husband with a woman. But grandma managed to keep Penny and took legal action to keep them apart.  They only get back together after Grandma’s death when Penny is a university student.  Cyn looks remarkably like her daughter except that she wears her blonde hair long, whilst Penny’s is a short bob cut.  They are even the same height at 5′ 6″.  She works as a Local Authority civil servant.

Hazel Clearwater.  (Born Hazel Jones).  (Appears in ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Martine’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Fracture’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Sofia’).  She was born on 2nd June 1955 and is 5′ 3″ tall.  She is one of Martine Fauld’s two business partners in Fauld’s Fashions, having known her since university.  Hazel is in a same-sex marriage with Martine’s other business partner, Penny Clearwater, and was her girlfriend from when they were students.  She is Hazel Fauld’s godmother and namesake, partly because Hazel Jnr was born on her birthday.  She is another fashion designer.  She is a slightly shy brunette, not as gregarious or loud as Penny, but in many ways she is actually the stronger character and brings Penny a sense of stability she badly needs.  Penny teases her constantly, but underneath it all she is almost pathetically grateful for her love. Hazel has a son called Jamie, who is a year younger than Roisin Fauld.  She and Penny got pregnant by AI at the same time, almost as a dare, and they joke that they are the first women ever to have separate twins.  In fact Penny’s daughter Rhoda is two weeks older than Jamie.  Hazel doesn’t have quite the design flare of Martine, who is a recognised genius, but she has an eye for detail and often catches errors the other two have missed.  She can also churn out the catalogue stuffing material which is Faulds’ real bread and butter, whilst Martine does the top end bespoke stuff that gives the firm its glitter and makes people want to buy the more everyday material.  The two thus compliment each other perfectly. 

James (Jamie) Clearwater. (Mentioned in ‘Daughters’). He is the son of Fauld’s cofounder, Hazel Clearwater and is a year younger than Roisin Fauld (two years older than Hazel). Hazel and Penny Clearwater, a same-sex married couple, got pregnant at the same time, almost as a dare, and they joke that they are the first women ever to have separate twins. In fact Penny’s daughter Rhoda is two weeks older than Jamie.

Lilly Clearwater.  (Appears in ‘Penny’).  She was the mother of Cynthia and grandmother of Penny Clearwater.  She was a deeply religious tyrant as a Grandma, who actually beat Penny as a girl if she showed the least sign of lesbian tendencies.  However, she was actually a closet lesbian herself, much to her initial self revulsion.  She had a long relationship with Jacquie Purdue, the much younger mother of Penny’s best friend Jasmine.  Both women were widows and Lilly was eventually reconciled to her own nature, thanks to a very supportive minister at her chapel.  She actually proposed to Jacquie and the pair got engaged.  However, she died suddenly of heart failure shortly afterwards, aged 65, in December 1974 so the two never got to be together.

 Penelope (Penny) Clearwater.  (Appears in ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Penny, ‘Martine’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’ and ‘Sofia’). She is one of Martine Fauld’s two business partners, having known her since university. She is in a same-sex marriage with Hazel Clearwater who was her girlfriend from when they were students. She is a textile production engineer with the skills to turn Martine and Hazel’s fashion designs into wonderful quality products. She has a daughter called Rhoda, who is a year younger than Roisin Fauld and who also models for Faulds. Although Penny is ice-blonde, Rhoda is brunette. Penny and Hazel got pregnant by AI with the same father. They did so simultaneously, almost as a dare, and joke that they are the first women to have separate twins. In fact Rhoda is two weeks older than Hazel’s son Jamie. Penny is tall and elegant. She is outwardly gregarious and confident to the point of brashness. She has a raucous sense of humour and a loud laugh, but she was badly abused as a child by a grandmother who beat her, which still leaves deep if carefully hidden psychological (and some physical) scars. In many ways her quiet, rather shy wife, is the stronger of the pair and Penny leans on her heavily. She was born on 27th November 1955 and is 5′ 7″ tall. She wears her hair in a short bob cut. She is Roisin Fauld’s godmother. 

 Rhoda Clearwater. (Appears in ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘Carol’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Sofia’). Rhoda is the daughter of Fauld’s co-founder, Penelope Clearwater, and an unknown (to us) father by AI. She is a year younger than Roisin Fauld, having been born on 7th July, 1983. She is slim, extremely pretty, has long rich-brunette hair and stands 5′ 5″ tall. She models the Fauld’s ‘Young Adult’ range with Roisin and Annie Roberts, and wants to stay in modelling although, like Roisin, she also wants to go to University. She is straight. She has a slightly fractious relationship with her mother, although there is no serious quarrel, but she probably finds Penny’s more laid-back wife Hazel easier to get on with. Our other Hazel, Hazel Fauld, rather fancies her, although she is very careful not to let her find out.  By the Time of Tina’s wedding in 2010 she is married and expecting her first child.

Gerald and Lavinia Clowes. (Mentioned in ‘Annie’, ‘Carol’ and ‘Sisters’). They were the Fauld family’s predecessors as owners of ‘The Cottage’ in Wyeburn, and were responsible for the alterations that turned it from a tiny country place into a large house, which included the huge 25m diameter circular extension that the Faulds use as a music room and rehearsal space, and which was actually the result of a builder misreading the plan of what was supposed to have been a 25 foot diameter play room for the Clowes children. They were originally from Birmingham, where Gerald was a machine tool manufacturer, but they moved to Wyeburn in the 1960s to breathe more country air. However, they got so engrossed in their grandiose extension project that Gerald took his eye off the ball in business and his company folded, meaning they had to sell the house. No one wanted to buy it with the vast accidental extension, until Rock star Debbie Stewart (later Fauld) and her then husband Nicky saw its potential as a rehearsal space and picked the place up for a song. 

Sgt (later Inspector) Mo (Maureen) Collins. (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Sofia’. Mentioned in ‘Roisin’ and ‘Chantel’). She is one of the Sappho’s ‘Dockers and has a fling with Hazel Fauld while she is getting Annie out of her system in late 2004. At the time Mo is in her early 30s so one of the youngest of the ‘Dockers’. She is a Police Sgt at the time, ambitious to make Inspector and is eventually involved in catching Zara Browning, with whom it turns out she once had an affair. By the time of ‘Sisters’ she had made Inspector. By the time we get to 2021 and ‘Sofie’ she is one of the most senior policewomen in London, being a Superintendent and almost 50, but she is also still a ‘Sappho’s’ regular.  She befriends Sofie Fauld, but refuses to get involved with her.

Andrew (Andy) Colmarton. (Appears in ‘Carol’.  Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’). He was Tina Burn’s last boyfriend before she came out as a lesbian. At the time he got little more of her interest than the long succession of his predecessors. He was, as they say, ‘only after one thing’, and not much use at dancing, so like all her other boyfriends she ditched him. Later though, they become good friends. He went out of the Saltbury area to University, where he met an altogether more enthusiastic girlfriend, Stacey.  

Tim (Timothy) Cottrell.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’ and ‘Fracture’).    He is the only other gay man in the Upper 6th at Saltbury High with Ben Marriot.  Very much in the closet with his peers, he is in a rather worrying relationship with a much (30+ years) older man called Seth Greenaway.  He and Ben Marriot are both initially worried that the other will let the cat out of the bag at school that they are gay, which is likely to get them teased, if not worse. Later, Seth turns violent to no-one’s great surprise.

Denise Crayford. (Appears in ‘Annie’ and ‘Daughters’.  Mentioned in ‘Carol’). She was the captain of the St. Ann’s School hockey team when Annie Roberts joined it. She was a year older than Annie, so in the Upper Sixth form.  Under Denise’s leadership, St. Ann’s won the Inter-schools Hockey Cup for the second year running. She succeeded Roisin Fauld as skipper and was in turn supposed to be succeeded by Annie, except that Annie’s parents left the area for Los Angeles, taking her with them, leaving Yvonne Wright as Captain. 

Celia Cumberton. (Mentioned in ‘Rachel’). She is the author of the immense book ‘Victorian Dress: an Anatomy’, which Hazel Fauld uses to help her to learn to make Goth dresses.

Donald Cuthbertson.  (Mentioned in ‘Chantel’).  He was the chief clerk at Dittingtons, the firm that used to run the warehouse that later became the Faulds’ Wapping flat. He often dealt with Chantel’s father.

-D-

Prof. Adam Dalton.  (Appears in ‘Martine’).  He is an archaeologist.  Years ago, back in the 1970s, he became a close friend of Debbie Stewart’s in her youth after they met when both being interviewed for a TV show.  They were lovers briefly while Deb and Nicky were separated after Nick had an affair with Faith.  When Deb was widowed and miscarried, she went off the rails and it was Adam who took her in and slowly brought her back from the brink.  She is convinced even decades later that he saved her life.  She fell in love with him and thought of trying to get him to marry her.  She started to learn the skills of his work and went on one of his digs (enjoying it a good deal).  He, though, knew that her destiny lay back in music and gently guided her back there.  In the process he won the undying respect of Deb’s manager Johnny, who knows what a temptation it must have been to try to hold onto her.  He and Deb remain lifelong friends and he married fellow archaeologist Beth. He was Roisin’s Prof. many years later when she was at University.

Angel Darling.  (Appears in ‘Sofia’).  Yes, it’s a stage name.  She is a young aspiring actress, great looking but not the sharpest knife in the drawer.  She is one of theater owner Poppy Prentice’s party set.  There is real trouble when aged lothario Tommy Hardman touches her up and arises the wrath of a whole roomful of people, most especially Sofie and Katie.

Dawn Witten and Kelly Peters. (Appear in ‘Annie’ and ‘Daughters’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Yvonne’ and ‘Fracture’). They are Beverley Dean’s two side-kick cronies and the would-be second in commands when she falls out with Yvonne Wright. They hate Annie Roberts because they think she is usurping their place with Bev. They come on as hard cases but they are really cowards who have hunkered up to the biggest bully in the school because they think she will protect them from any others. They find themselves in a rather cold world when Bev is expelled and neither of them prove strong enough to become the new Queen Bee, especially against the reforming zeal of Yvonne’s new leaf. The following year they later adopt the same sidekick role to Lia Blantyre. It doesn’t go well. 

Beverley Dean. (Appears in ‘Haze’ and Annie’.  Mentioned in ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Red’ and ’Yvonne’). She was St. Ann’s ruthless Queen Bee when Hazel Fauld and Tina Burns were in the Fifth Form, and the nearest the school had to a female thug, although, she was also rather beautiful and according to Hazel Fauld: “Christ that girl’s got even bigger boobs than me!” Annie Roberts sort of joins her gang when she is first in the school, but runs rings round her mentally. One of Bev’s hench-women is Yvonne Wright, who is utterly in love with Bev. Bev, though, is not amused, she is both straight and homophobic. She thinks her Queen Bee status should just give her first choice of the boys. Bev is a year older than Yvonne and Annie, being born on 12th Nov, 1982. She is 5′ 9″ tall, taller than Tina and Annie and as tall as the dreaded Games teacher Carol Baxter. 

Judith (Judy) Deansgate (née Cooper). (Referred to in ‘Red’). She was a close friend of Tina Burns’ friend Marcus at University, and a fellow Law student. They were in love, but neither had the nerve to tell the other as they were too afraid that a rejection would spoil their friendship. Judith eventually fell for a boy who mistreated her. Tina persuaded Marcus, who by then had left University, to tell Judith how he felt. The feeling is mutual and they eventually marry and have two children.

Marcus Deansgate. (Appears in ‘Red’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Carol’ and ‘Fracture’). He is the nearest Tina Burns ever comes to a successful straight relationship. She met him on a family holiday on Kos, whilst she and Carol were estranged. He is good looking, considerate and another budding lawyer. He is two years older than Tina and had just graduated from University when they met. Tina and him try to date on holiday on Kos, but even with this wonderful man, Tina reacts badly. It turns out that just as Tina is not on the market for any man, Marcus still has a candle burning for a University friend, Judith, who has a ne’er-do-well boyfriend who mistreats her. Teen persuades him to let her know his feelings. It works and the two eventually marry and have children.   He represents Bob Quantock when he tried to get custody of his daughter Wendy in ‘Millie’ and the old, now purely platonic, friendship with Tina is still strong.

Michelle Declan.    (Appears in ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’).  She is a Fashion Production engineering student at Queen Ann’s University when Hazel Fauld and Aimee Bowes are design students.  The three are good friends. They share a studio in the Department and group together for projects, like Martine, Penny and the older Hazel used to do when they were students.  She is Brunette, slim, pretty and very capable although as Hazel puts it “she thinks breasts are something that only happen to other people.”

Joyce and Bernard Deveraux.  (Appear in ‘Carol’ Mentioned in ‘Gold’).  The couple own and run Carol’s gym:  The ‘Castle Dance and Fitness Centre’, which sits more or less opposite Burns & Son, in the Saltbury Market Square.

Adriana Diaz-Esteban. (Appears in ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’. Mentioned in ‘Debbie’s Gift’). She was the Faulds’ au-pair from October 2002, when Deb wanted to start work again after giving birth to Sofie. She is gay and at first there was a slight attraction between her and Hazel, but really Haze only has eyes for Annie. She is a big hit in the Fauld family and Sofie soon comes to dote on her. She has long dark wavy hair, deep brown eyes, slightly olive skin. She is about 5′ 5″ and about 18 months older than Hazel, being on her gap year after school, so 19 when they meet. She takes to going to the ‘Gemini Club’ on her days off, at first with Yvonne Wright, who she dates briefly, and occasionally goes to ‘Cheapies’ with the ‘Coven’. She eventually falls in love with Mabel Trevithick the singer with Goth band ‘Dark Portal’, and the feeling is very mutual. The feeling is very mutual and they eventually marry.  She comes from Madrid where her parents still live and eventually come to terms with her relationship with Mabel.

Prof. Margaret Dixon.  (Appears in ‘Roisin’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’).    She is the head of the Queen Ann’s University Design Dept. when Hazel Fauld and her friends Aimee Bowes, Michelle and Rachel are students.  She has a wry sense of humour and rather despite herself she is impressed with Hazel and Aimee.  As both are the children of major fashion designers she had been determined that they shouldn’t get special attention, but they turn out to have so much talent in their own right that they warrant it. She is strict and stern, but with huge charisma. Hazel says the students might not love her, but they had huge respect for her.

Violet (Vi) Dodds. (Appears in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Sisters’. Mentioned in ‘Roisin’, ‘Chantel’, ’Yvonne’ and ‘Wyeburn Station). She is the oldest of the Sappho’s clubs’ so called ‘Dockers’, aged somewhere in her early 60s. She had a brief fling with Hazel Fauld while the latter was getting over losing Annie . She tries to keep her name secret from Hazel, who refers to her as ‘not Daphne’. She was perhaps the ‘Docker’ most like the reputation the group have in the club. She likes rough, even violent sex. She is something of a ‘touch me not’. She loves the effect she can have on others and doesn’t want anything back. In fact she gets hostile if anyone tries to reciprocate, finding it almost humiliating. She died in 2011 after falling down the stairs at home when Haze discovers that she’d had a girlfriend in the 1960s to who she was utterly devoted, Betty Swanson.  But Betty died young of breast cancer.  Vi never forgot her, and although eventually her need for sex came through and she became a docker, no one was allowed to touch her.  Only Betty had been allowed that and her ashes were scattered on Betty’s grave when she died.

Janet Dorkins.  (Appears in ‘Chantel’).   She was the love of Chantel Barham’s youth and the one who really showed her who she was.  Sadly, she eventually dumped her and left her heartbroken and vowing never to let anyone have the power to hurt her like that again.  Hence her becoming a ‘Docker’ and refusing to have romantic relationships.  Janet was a waitress in a fancy coffee bar and a real golden haired beauty, a couple of years older than Chantel, who was 18 when they met.

Alice Downing. (Mentioned in ‘Daughters’). She is an attractive girl in Yvonne Wright’s class at St. Ann’s. The evil Lia fancies her and tries to surreptitiously eye her up when she’s changing for Games lessons.

Luke Drymen.  (Mentioned (not by name in) ‘Haze’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Sandie’ and ‘Lexi’).  He is Rosie Drymen’s father.  When she was little he was a devoted husband and doting father, but he slipped into a serious mental illness which turned him increasingly violent and unpredictable.  In particular he became rabidly homophobic.  In the end Rosie’s mother divorced him and brought her daughter up alone, but he continued to have access rights, which upset Rosie as she became ever more certain she was gay.  She eventually grew terrified of him out of all proportion to his real threat as he was increasingly institutionalised, and her obsessive secrecy was what ultimately drove her and her first girlfriend Tina apart.

Patricia Drymen.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’ and ‘Lexi’. Mentioned in ‘Carol’).  Her maiden name was Patricia Wearing.  She is the mother of Rosie Drymen.  She is rather younger than Debbie Fauld and Desmond and Mary Burns, being born in 1962.  After her husband’s mental illness turned him increasingly violent, she divorced and brought Rosie up alone.

Hester d’Villier.   (Appears in ‘Martine’.  Mentioned in ‘Debbie’s Gift’).    She is the CEO of Debbie Stewart’s record company, ‘Quintipus Records’.  She is a hugely successful business woman in her mid thirties when we meet her in 1976.  She is also a very glamorous woman:  independent, unmarried and not particularly interested in long term relationships.  She rather enjoys seducing and then dropping those men who have a tendency to treat women the same way.  ‘Xeroed’ bassist John Inger is one of her ‘conquests’.

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Mike (Mikey) Edwards. (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Chantel’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’). He is a young man in his late teens who crews for Chantel Barham on her river tug the ‘Anne Lister’. Chantel always takes what she calls a ‘charity case’ as trainee crew, usually a young offender, trying to make good. We aren’t told what crime Mikey has committed, but it earned him a 1 year sentence. He was allowed out after just a few months, but only on condition that he acquitted himself well with Chantel. In fact he has been so successful that she is considering giving him a permanent job. He knows his skipper is a lesbian, but worships her. He teases that she gets better looking women than he does. He treats her as part boss, part beloved Grandma.

Sergeant Gwen Edwards.   (Appears in ‘Gold’).  She is the Saltbury Police fingerprint and forensics officer who attends a break-in at Tina and Carol’s house.  She is rather elderly, in fact when she got out of Detective Inspector Vincent’s car, Tina thought he’d brought his mother.

Karen Egington. (Appears in Rachel, mentioned in ‘Sisters’). She is the bi-sexual girl friend of the first boy Hazel Fauld ever slept with. That was after a rather drunken student disco and Haze had no idea he already had a girlfriend. Haze and Karen meet in lesbian club Sappho’s some weeks later and (drunk again) decide to sleep together just to get their own back.

Lesley Elliot.  (Appears in ‘Aleyse’).  She is a nurse and a friend of Ruth Gregory’s ex girlfriend Elaine.  She dates Ruth and the two hit it off well except that Ruth simply isn’t ready to commit yet.

Julieta Espina La Torre.  (Appears in ‘Debbie’s Gift’).  Julieta was the Faulds’ Spanish au-pair from September 2006 to 2007.  Unlike their previous au-pairs, at least since the birth of baby Sofie, she is straight, although perfectly understanding of the family she finds herself in.  She is 18 when she arrives, so she was born in 1988 (3 years younger than Hazel).  She is dark, with long hair in natural ringlets that flow to below her shoulder.  She’s initially reluctant to take her days off as she is rather shy about going out alone.  Martine and her family say she speaks particularly pure Spanish and is being very good for Sofie and Danielle’s absorption of the language.

Doroteia Esteves.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’).  She is a Portuguese middle distance runner, who wins the 1,500m Bronze in the 2006 Lisbon European Championships, at which Carol Baxter gets Gold and Svetlana Boreshkova Silver.

Jilly Evans.  (Appears in ‘Annie’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Aleyse’, ‘Martine’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Sofia’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’). She is 15 years older than Debbie Stewart and a close friend. She was a well known figure in the music world long before Deb, having formed famous 1960s/70s psychedelic band ‘Tantric Angels’ with her then husband, Josh Oakham. She and Deb were briefly lovers whilst making their ‘A Farewell to Love’ album after her marriage break-up and Deb’s widowhood. Later they formed ‘Aleyse’ together and remain close friends after a few hiccups. She has a son, Rob, with ‘Xeroed’ bassist/singer John Inger. Rob is a year older than Hazel Fauld, being born in 1984. She was born on 7th Feb, 1942 and is 5′ 5″ tall. She and John have a curious, but apparently monogamous, long term relationship which started in 1976, when ‘Aleyse’ toured as support for ‘Xeroed’. They have never married and don’t live together all of the time, but it seems to suit them and they are still very firmly a couple. John is 13 years younger than Jilly. She lives in a posh house at 16 Opal Gardens, Hackney which has a well equipped recording studio in the basement. Several of Deb and Jilly’s albums together were recorded there. Much later, 2006, ‘Fauld’ recorded their debut EP, ‘Primary’ in the studio with Jilly as producer. She continues to take them under her wing and produced their first album, Avatar, which was also recorded in her studio.  Much later she produces Sofie Fauld’s first album ‘Sofia’.  She was due to produce her second, but weeks before suffered a serious stroke which may end her musical career.

Robert (Rob) Evans. (Appears in ‘Roisin’ and ‘Sofia’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Sisters’). He is the only child of Jilly Evans and John Inger. He is a year older than Hazel Fauld, so born in 1984. He assisted his mother in recording ‘Fauld’s debut EP in 2006.