Or to put it another way, here is an introduction to some of the characters of the Saltbury Chronicles. I add a new one every day or two so if your favorite isn’t here yet, they soon will be.
The Minor Characters A-E
The Minor Characters F-J
The Minor Characters K-O
The Principal Characters.
The ‘Saltbury Chronicles’ series is the story of two lesbian women, Tina Burns and Hazel Fauld. They are lifelong best friends, but somehow never quite lovers and we follow them from their last days at school, through University and on into adult life.
Christina (Tina) Louise Burns (later Baxter). (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Sandie’, ‘Lexi’, ‘Yvonne’, ’Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’). Tina is the central character and narrator of ‘Red’, the story of her love for a woman she once deeply disliked. Tina was born on the 31st of July 1985 five years after her brother Peter, to parents who had almost given up hope of having a second child. She was their little miracle baby, especially in her doting father’s eyes. Academically gifted (she got 10 straight A’s in her GCSEs), she is a very attractive young woman with a winning smile. She is 5′ 7″ , slender and feminine. Her glory is her beautiful, long, flame red hair. However, she was a gawky early to mid teenager, who flowered late, which left her with a poor body image. She thus tends to be dismissive about her looks because she does not believe that she is really the beautiful woman she sees in the mirror. She has a deadpan sense of humour and likes teasing her friends, but she is kind, loving and loyal. She has beautiful calligraphic handwriting. Behind her soft edges, Tina knows what she wants in life. She is a stronger character, and occasionally a less nice person than she sometimes appears. ‘Red’ opens when Tina is almost 20, just after the end of her first year as a law student at Saltbury University. Her father, Desmond is a lawyer with his own practice in Saltbury and her ambition since childhood has been to join him in the firm. Her brother is not interested in the law. Her father was initially very disappointed at that and badly hurt Tina by suggesting that her genuine interest was something of a second best. He soon realised what an idiot he had been, though, and all was forgiven and forgotten. They also share a passion for gardening and she is very much daddy’s girl. He often calls her ‘Princess’. In ‘Red’, Tina has become a bit of a social recluse, though. The girl she thought was the love of her life has dumped her, but she is starting to make a bit of a come-back. Tina’s best friend is Hazel Fauld. The two were inseparable through high school and although by ‘Red’ Hazel (who she calls ‘Haze’ and who calls her ‘Teen’) is now a design student in London, and so not around so much, they remain extremely close. Hazel is her chief confidant, advisor and shoulder to cry on and they have a special, if usually platonic love, although they have several times hovered on the edge of becoming more than just friends. Unlike Hazel , who embraced her sexuality with hardly a blink, Tina was extremely reluctant to accept that she was gay. She fought it for several years, thinking it would blight her life. She dated boys, although she hated it and never came close to allowing a sexual relationship to develop. She actually got her first girlfriend a few days before Hazel did. But only when she saw how happy Hazel was with her first love did she start to really question her negative expectations (and even more so those of her mother, Mary). Desmond and Peter are both comfortable with Tina’s sexuality, although Desmond took a while to get used to it. Mary is a lot less happy. She hopes it is a phase that will pass, or a bit of teenage rebellion – and much of Tina’s difficulty in accepting herself stemmed from a desire to please her mother. When Tina pair off with her former teacher, Carol Baxter, . Mary initially disapproves of Carol particularly. She thinks she has no business being interested in a former pupil (something Carol herself frets over). Desmond too has doubts at first until he sees how considerately Carol treats Tina. The couple eventually marry in 2010. Her father gives her a partnership in his law firm as a wedding present and the firm changes name from Burns & Son, to Burns & Daughter. Tina takes Carol’s name, Baxter, except at work, where she remains Tina Burns professionally, largely because Miss Bryony insists. Carol trains her to become a good triple-jumper, but she eventually makes her childhood love of rowing into a sport she really excels at, much to Carol’s approval. The Burns family live at 11. Lincoln Crescent: a posh suburban street of 1930s detached 4/5 bedroomed houses off Park Road.
Tina and Carol live at 27 Fiddler’s Walk and later at 17 Tudor Close. In ‘Wyeburn Station’ Tina gets pregnant, with her brother-in-law Gary as sperm donor, and has a little girl who she and Carol name Millie Louise, after Milicent Baxter, Carol’s beloved grandma, and Louise after Tina’s middle name, which is itself her maternal grandmother’s name. Tina loves being a mother, despite Millie’s sometimes rebellious nature (there’s a lot of Baxter in her), and eventually teaches her daughter to row, something she comes to take very seriously.
Hazel Sofia Fauld. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Red’, ‘Sandie’, ’Lexi’, ‘Yvonne’, ‘Chantel’ and ‘Martine’). Hazel, often known as Haze, is 16 at the time of the first story, ‘Haze’ and is in the 5th form at St. Ann’s School for Girls in Saltbury. She narrates the first three Saltbury books. She is a real gilded youth, the second child of multimillionaire same sex couple Martine and Debbie Fauld, who she just calls ‘The Mums’. Martine is a famous fashion designer and Debbie, more usually known by her maiden name, Debbie Stewart, is a globally famous Rock star. Hazel knew she was gay from a very young age and was perfectly at ease with it thanks to the example set by her blissfully contented Mums who have been in love for almost 30 years. But she had never managed to find a girlfriend. At the time of ‘Haze’ she’s had crushes on other girls, including her friend Tina Burns and a new kid in school, Annie Roberts, who is in the year above her. Hazel has long almost jet-black hair, thanks to her half Spanish birth mother, Martine. She loves dark Goth fashions and make up, although she is actually a rather sunny character with an impish sense of humor. Her ambition is to follow Martine into design, but she is also a talented amateur drummer. She is much preoccupied by what she sees as failings in her appearance. She refers to herself frequently as a ‘dumpy Goth’ as she is rather plump, and short, at 5′ 1″ . She also calls herself a ‘hunch front’ as she needs a 38DD bra, and the overhang makes her look plumper than she is. Her older sister Roisin, by contrast, is stunningly beautiful and rapidly becoming a big name model, but there is no jealousy. The two sisters are very close. Haze has dreadful handwriting and is less academic than Tina. At the same time she is less sporty than her sister, who was captain of the school hockey team. She is though, a talented artist. She was born on 2nd June, 1985, the 30th birthday of Martine’s close friend Hazel Clearwater who she is named after as a result. Hazel senior became her godmother. Her godfather is Charlie Hides, Debbie’s drummer. He teaches her drums and is a big fan of her talent. There is always a slight feeling that Haze and Tina might become a couple. It hasn’t happened yet, but I don’t promise it never will. In fact she eventually marries Annie Roberts. In the meantime she goes off to London to study fashion design at University and falls in love with Rachel, the bass player in the band she forms with her big sister, Roisin’. Fifteen years later, in ‘Sofia’, ‘Fauld’ are big stars and Haze is also a working designer. Haze is married to Annie, after her terrible illness and the couple are very happy, living in Wyeburn’s old railway station which has been converted into a private house beside the still busy GWR main London to Bristol line. Sofie worships her despite the 16 year age gap, even though she gets on far less well with Roisin, who mumsiness she finds bossy.
Other Major Characters.
Caroline (Carol) Baxter. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘History Girls’, ‘Loren’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, , ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Sandie’). Carol is a Saltbury native in origin, born on 28th Feb, 1978, but she is a returnee, after University and teacher training in London. She came back to be Games mistress at St. Ann’s School for Girls, her first permanent teaching post, and when the series begins she is 23. People, including pupils and other teachers, underestimate her intelligence as she is so obsessed with sport, but she got first class honours in her Sport Science BSc and has wider interests, especially music and dancing. She is also a Teachers’ Union activist. Her athleticism is reflected in her physique. In particular, as a runner she has long, powerful and well shaped legs, which Tina finds extremely attractive. But she works out and swims a great deal, so she also has good upper body development, although not much of a bust. She is quite tall for a woman, at 5′ 9″. She has long straw-blond hair, which she generally wears in a ponytail. Her face is striking rather than pretty and she can be quite intimidating – with an austere look and piercing blue eyes, which she (and her brother) inherited from her father Gordon. When she laughs, though, her whole demeanour softens. She sets a lot of store by good manners, which helps endear her to Desmond Burns who is the same. Her teaching style is often authoritarian, sarcastic and even bullying at least when dealing with pupils she regards as shirkers. Tina and Hazel came in for the full force of her sarcasm during the three years they had her as a teacher. As a result the pair nicknamed her ‘Queen bitch’ (sometimes shortened to Queenie), a name that spread round the school. They loathed her with a vengeance, but Carol was secretly proud of the name. The real Carol is a more complex person and with enthusiastic pupils she becomes immensely nurturing and encouraging. Outside school, she runs an athletics youth group she calls her ‘Specials’. They are her project to encourage female athletes and unlike many of her other pupils, they dote on her and she gets the best out of them. Carol’s father, Gordon, is a former Olympic athlete and is now the trainer at the local athletics club (and its only employee apart from the barmaid – who is paid more than him). He is also Carol’s coach. She is a talented athlete whose particular events are the mile and 1,500m. She regularly wins county and, increasingly, national events, and she and her father are starting to think seriously about trying for the British Olympic team while she’s still young enough. Carol’s dedication is total and she shows herself willing to accept the most arduous of training regimes. She is the apple of her fathers eye and he still calls this fearsome woman ‘chick’ (short for chickpea). When they are training, however, he can be every bit as authoritarian as her, often screaming abuse to get her to try even harder, something Carol accepts with amusement. Carol is quite tall for a woman, at 5′ 9″. She has long straw-blond hair, which she generally wears in a ponytail. Her face can be intimidating – with an austere look and piercing blue eyes, which she inherited from her father. When she laughs though, her whole demeanor softens. She sets a lot of store by good manners and Tina and Hazel find it odd that she holds the door of the headmistress’ office open for them when taking them in to be punished. Carol is a lesbian and is in a relationship with another teacher, Angela Glynbourne (Ange) when we first meet her. But she keeps that very secret at school. She is perfectly at ease with her sexuality, but she is aware that some parents might find it hard to accept a lesbian teaching in an all girls school. She has a powerful sense of ethics and always holds herself to the most exacting of standards. Carol has a fear of alcohol as there is alcoholism in the family, and she seldom drinks. She tells people it’s part of her fitness regime, but fear plays a bigger part, especially as she has a tendency to drink heavily on the rare occasions she drinks at all. She had a brush with far right politics at University under the influence of an aristocratic girlfriend called Loren (really Lady Arrabella). But this is something of which she is now deeply ashamed. Carol has an eighteen month older brother, Gary, who is a Biology teacher. He is not very sporty, dismissing his father and sister’s obsession – tongue in cheek- as “running round in circles”. Gordon does not resent his son’s lack of interest. He finds his daughter’s passion just as valid and loves working with her. Part of the reason that Ange broke up with Carol was her resentment of how much time training took up in her life, although in ‘Carol’ we also find that Carol’s tendency to being a touch-me-not was the real reason, so he is delighted when Tina proves to be supportive. Far from feeling neglected as Ange had, Tina enjoys taking a role in Carol’s training and finds her speed a sexual turn on and her considerable physical strength protecting, not threatening. Gordon and Gary are relaxed about Carol’s sexuality (although Gordon finds it slightly embarrassing when Carol and Tina kiss in front of him), but her mother, Sheila, is not. Like Tina’s mother, she is not exactly homophobic, she just wishes her daughter was straight, although at 26 she has accepted that Carol’s lesbianism is well past the point where is can be dismissed as either a phase, or a rebellion. She thinks her daughter is bound to keep on getting hurt, as she was by Ange. In particular, she thinks Tina is too young for her and fears that she may have eyes on the fact that Carol has an established career, house, car etc, whereas Tina is an impoverished student, albeit one from a prosperous background. However, she does come to respect Tina’s self-reliance and determination that she will never be a ‘kept woman’. Both mothers, if never exactly enthused, do gradually come to accept that Carol and Tina are serious about each other and make a good couple. The four parents are also brought together when it turns out that Gordon and Sheila belong to a ballroom dancing group. Desmond and Mary used to be big enthusiasts, and local champions, before their children arrived, and soon join the class and start to rediscover their lost youth. Her mother and grandmother tried to bring her up as a girlie-girl with plaits, ribbons and cute frilly frocks, whilst her brother was allowed mud, football etc. She loathed it and eventually cut off her long hair in an act of rebellion that left her with a crew-cut. She came to hate that too and has since become a lot more at ease with her femininity. Brother and sister are very close. They constantly tease each other, but Gary was one of the few people in her childhood who really took her seriously. In ‘Carol’ we find that she was subjected to an attempted rape at 16. She fought off her attacker successfully but eventually has to accept that she was more traumatised by the event than she had thought. Later she makes the British Olympic team. She wins medals at the 2006 Commonwealth and European championships and the 2008 Olympics, but a stress fracture makes her miss the 2007 World Championships. However, she makes the 2009 Worlds and beats the world record. She is made a Dame for her services to sport. When she retires from top level athletics after the Olympics she becomes a sports commentator and general TV personality, famous for her salty, but ultimately clean language. She married Tina Burns in 2010 and they have a daughter, Millie in 2012, with Carol’s brother Gary as donor. She’s a loving, if irascible mother, desperate for the chance to train her daughter and enjoy the sort of teamwork relationship she had with her father.
Rosie (Rose) Patricia Drymen. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘History Girls’, ‘Sandie’, ‘Lexi’ and ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Sisters’ and ‘Roisin’, ‘Yvonne’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Millie’). Rosie was Tina Burns’ first girlfriend. They met at school where Rosie had a crush on Tina for a long time without daring to tell her. They eventually got together when they were in the 5th form and dated in semi-secret until the end of school. Rosie is a pivotal character in Tina’s development, because she was key to Tina finally being able to come to terms with her sexuality. Rosie is shy and frightened of hers being known, because she has a fanatically homophobic father, but she is perfectly ease with being a lesbian in herself. They are both the other’s first girlfriend and even when they part after going to different Universities, a special spark continues and they remain close friends. Rosie lives at 14 Bryony Walk, just five or ten minutes walk from Tina. She has long straight, dark hair, small breasts and nice legs, according to leg girl Tina. She has a rosy complexion to match her name, especially her cheeks which give her an air of health. She is pretty, but she hides it well at first. She tries to be inconspicuous and actually tends to stoop slightly, giving the impression that she is shorter than she is although she is really almost as tall as Tina ( 5′ 5″). She also wears unflattering plastic framed glasses. Tina starts to find her attractive when she first sees her without the specs, when she gave Tina and Hazel extra gym classes. She eventually gets contact lenses and looks far better. Because of her retiring nature, Hazel Fauld refers to her as ‘little Rosie’ even though Rosie is four inches taller than her. Rosie is a little vague and has a way of going off into daydreams when she is supposed to be concentrating, notably in lessons, which is never a great idea with Miss Baxter around. For all her dreaminess though, Rosie sometimes shows a ruthless streak, especially when she thinks she is protecting Tina. Tina thinks her shy smile is lovely. She is six weeks older than Tina, having been born on 15th June, 1985. Rosie’s parents were divorced after her once sweetie of a dad became violently mentally ill. He is now rabidly homophobic but in ‘Haze’ he still has access rights to her. She is terrified of him, which is why she insists on her and Tina’s relationship being a secret. They pretend to be just study buddies which gives them the excuse to hang out together a lot in Rosie’s bedroom after school, while her mother is still at work. Once she leaves school, Rosie studies History at university. She goes to Durham in the hope that it is too far for her father to find her, but the separation breaks her and Tina up. After the breakup she finds truer love. Her later relationship with Lexi (Alexandra) is far more the real thing, and she eventually does come out to her Mum, Patricia, but when Tina and her are alone together, there is still a slight candle burning between them, even now they have found their real loves with Lexi and Carol. Her mother says she always knew the two were an item. She says ‘No one studies that much at 16.’ She and Lexi are still together, now happily married in ‘Millie’, living in Cumbria. They are still friends with Tina and Carol. They don’t have children.
Deborah Celeste Fauld (Born and still often known as Debbie Stewart). (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘History Girls’, Penny, Aleyse, ’Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Sandie’ and ‘Chantel’). Better known professionally by her maiden name, Deb is an internationally famous Rock guitarist, several times voted one of the top five ever and also voted one of the most beautiful women on Earth in the 1970s and 80s. She is a bona fide musical genius. We meet her in ‘Haze’ aged 45, but she was virtually a child star, being famous at 16 and world famous at 18 with Prog Rock stadium stompers ‘Xeroed’ and later her more intimate side-project ‘Aleyse’. She was widowed at 19 when her husband and childhood sweetheart, Nicky was killed in a plane crash. She was pregnant at the time, but later miscarried. She’d been a hard living Rock chick then had a months-long relationship with her friend Adam Dalton after being widowed, but later astonished her friends and public by forming a same sex relationship with Martine Fauld, a rather plump design student who made stage clothes for her. Even Martine doubted at first that Deb was serious about the relationship, but she became the love of Deb’s life and we see them decades later in a blissfully passionate marriage, despite Deb being away on tour for long periods. Deb is physically slight, at just 5′ tall and actually has trouble keeping her weight up. She has long ice-blonde hair and blue eyes. She is soft spoken and a loving wife and mother. She can be absent minded and otherworldly. Even so, she has a charisma and focus that can sometimes make her a little intimidating, as can her workaholic perfectionism. She has a sharp brain, and sometimes runs rings round her far better educated wife. Deb longed for children. Martine shared the wish, but both wanted Deb to carry the babies. However, the miscarriage she had after her husband’s death, proved not to be a one off. It turned out she could not carry a pregnancy to term. Eventually Martine swallowed her fear and carried their two daughters: Roisin and Hazel although both women are equally ‘Mum’ to the girls. Deb had a distinctly cold childhood with a martinet father who put little value on girls. He wanted a son and when his wife proved not to be able to have more children he came to resent his daughter. Her mother meanwhile was totally under her husband’s thumb. They lived in the country in a house called Sawyers Mill just outside the little village of Mylford to the north-west of Saltbury. It had a field with a stream which she loved playing in as a child and she made sure her own home was also beside a stream. She had good childhood friends, including the vicar’s daughter Jenny Wilding, and her future husband, Nicky who she met at play-group when she was four. But her relationship with her parents was always loveless and they (i.e. her father) eventually threw her out because she decided to leave school early when her musical career took off. He had wanted her to go to University, not so much for her own education, but to come back with a decent son-in-law to carry on his business, preferably his best friend’s son Johnny Sherwin, who later became her manager. Deb is famously hopeless with money. She is a hugely successful multimillionaire, but is never quite sure she can pay next month’s bills and tends to drive elderly second-hand cars. But she is fortunate to have her wife and obsessively honest and devoted manager to protect her. She was born on 14th May 1956. . Deb is spectacularly beautiful and graceful in her movements, which also made her a successful model. In particular, she modelled for Faulds for many years. In fact she started while Martine and her partners were still design students. But at the same time it was in many ways Martine’s instinct for how to dress and style her which turned pretty girl next door pop star into the Rock goddess she became. She is immensely proud of her daughters’ musical success, but rather worried by Sofie’s thrupple.
Martina (Martine or Marty) Sofia Fauld. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Penny’, ‘Aleyse’, ’Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, Gold’, , ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Chantel’). Martine was born on 17th May, 1955 and grew up in Warrington in the NW of England. She is half Spanish, her mother Andrea having been a child refugee from the Spanish civil war. As a result she has a slightly Mediterranean complexion and very dark hair which she dyes jet black and wears waist length. She is big, six feet tall and of robust build. She’s also busty and physically immensely strong, especially for a woman. She has a fiery temper when pushed, but mostly she’s a gentle giant and something of an Earth mother, although she can be fierce if anything threatens her beloved wife and family. She made two very close friends, Hazel and Penny at University, where she studied fashion and design. Afterwards, the three formed their own fashion house, Faulds, named not because it belongs to Martine, but because the three thought it was a nice pun on ‘folds’. Penny and Hazel later marry. Martine has loved making and designing clothes since she was a little girl. She used to make clothes for her dolls. It’s all she ever wanted to do when she grew up. She met Debbie Stewart when she came to London to intern with a fashion house and rented a room in her flat, and the two became great friends. But a year after Deb’s husband Nicky’s death, by which time Martine was at University, the two fell in love. At first Marty placed little faith in the relationship lasting, but Debbie was certain that she had found the one she was going to spend her life with and so it proved. Deb adores her and they eventually married. Both women wanted children, Martine was terrified of what she calls ‘the biology’ i.e. pregnancy, labour etc. But once it became clear that Deb couldn’t carry a child, she swallowed her fears and had Roisin and Hazel. Much later a new fertility treatment let Deb too have children, but both women are equally Mum to all. Martine’s grandmother, Sofia Martínez, was a Spanish Civil War humanitarian heroine, going into war zones and bringing orphaned children out to safety. She was eventually killed in a bombing raid and an uncle got her only daughter Andrea Sofia out of the country to Britain. Ever since, all the Fauld girls have had Sofia as their middle name. Unlike Deb, Martine is a proficient businesswoman. As well as helping Deb’s manager care for her considerable fortune, she also founded ‘Fauld’s a fashion house which, despite the name, is an equal partnership between her and her University friends Hazel and Penny Clearwater. With their combined talent and drive it soon acquired an international reputation. Deb became its first model and later their daughter Roisin modeled for it, along with Annie Roberts, and Penny’s daughter Rhoda. Martine constantly sketches. She is a superb artist and can sketch at lightening speed. Mostly she sketches women she meets professionally or otherwise and designs clothes she feels would suit them on the fly onto the sketches, which she then gives to the model. She carries a shoulder bag with pencils and blocks of cartridge paper for the purpose. She loves dressing other people. Oddly, though, she has little interest in her own clothes, and often wears worn out black jeans and T shirts, much to the exasperation of her elegant fashionista business partner Penny. Marty particularly loves dressing Deb and is partly responsible for her early sex-bomb stage image. With their four children Marty tends to be the disciplinarian, but she’s also the Earth mother and cook, whereas Deb is the cerebral mentor. Oddly, although Martine is far better educated, Deb is the one they went to for help with their homework, whereas Marty would be the one to rush to with cut knees or if they were upset or frightened. Deb gives advice, while Marty gives cuddles. Martine has real worries about Sofie’s not quite marriage to Tara and Andrew, but still designs her wedding dress. She enthusiastically recruits Tina’s pretty daughter, Millie, to model her junior range.
Róisin Sofia Fauld. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Chantel’). Roisin is Hazel Fauld’s beloved older sister. She was born on 8th Jan, 1982 and is three and a half years older than Hazel. Often known as Roshie, or just Rosh, Roisin is the oldest of Martine and Debbie Fauld’s four daughters. Tina jokes that in the 18th century she would have been known as ‘the Miss Fauld’ as a result. Unlike Hazel, she is the perfect model, tall, slim, graceful and elegant, and a natural honey blonde. She began modelling when she was three and modelled the Faulds’ Fashions’ infants range and by the time she was at University she was well on the way to the supermodel standing she later achieved. Like Hazel, Roshie’s father is a cousin of Deb’s and she looks far more like Debbie than she does her birth mother, Martine as a result. She is taller than Deb though, at 5′ 6″. The two are very close as Rosh is a talented guitarist and Deb has taught her from childhood. She later proves to be a superb songwriter as well and Deb is hugely proud of her. She dotes on her kid sister, who she still calls by a childhood nickname: Bunny Rabbit, or just Bun, because Hazel constantly angled to have pet rabbits when she was little. Her tendency to mother people rather put’s Sofie’s back up, though, especially in her late teens and into her 20s. Rosh herself had a pony called Sugarlump. Hazel adores her big sister in her turn. When she was a little girl, Roisin was almost a third mother to her. Rosh had a great talent for story-telling and used to make up bedtime stories specially for Hazel, which she much later wrote up for publication with Hazel as illustrator. The resulting book was published in October 2002 by Fox Cub Books. It was called ‘Wyeburn Myths and Magic’. Growing up in a country cottage that could be cold in winter, Hazel often snuck into Rosh’s bed for warmth and companionship as a little girl. Martine worried about it. Deb just thought it was cute. They still occasionally do it as adults, when one of them is in need of TLC. In ‘Haze’ we meet Roisin as a first year history student at Manchester, but she went to St. Ann’s, the same school as Hazel, where she was a rather gentle rebel and a sporting heroine, being captain of hockey in her last two years, leading the team that in the second season won the Inter-schools Cup. For years, Roisin is seen as the token straight girl of the family and shortly after graduating from University she married her university love, Colin, who is a fellow history fan. She wants to have children as young as she can so that she can be young with them, however, after more than a year of marriage she still hasn’t managed to get pregnant. Then Colin catches her in bed with a woman called Helen, who she had had a fling with at University. That ends their marriage, even though the lesbian relationship ends too, but Roisin eventually pairs up with Rachel Holmes, bassist with ‘Fauld’ and an ex of Hazel’s and each finds the other to be the love of their life. Hazel adores her big sister. When she was a small girl, Roisin was almost a third mother to her. Rosh also had a great talent for storytelling and used to make up stories specially for Hazel, which she much later wrote up for publication, with Hazel as illustrator. The resulting book was published in October 2002 by Fox Cub Books. It was called ‘Wyeburn Myths and Magic’. Rosh and Rachel eventually marry: a very successful relationship. Eventually, Roshie’s longing for children is satisfied when Rachel has two children via AI: a boy, Martin, and a girl Tanya, three years younger. Rosh and Rachel eventually marry: a very successful relationship. Eventually, Roshie’s longing for children is satisfied when Rachel has two children via AI: a boy, Martin, and a girl Tanya, three years younger.
Catherine (Katie) Joanne Ralstrick. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Red’, ‘Carol’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘History Girls’, ‘Sandie’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Sisters’ and ‘Roisin’). Katie was Tina Burns’ best friend at primary school and later at University. She only lives a few streets away, but they went to different secondary schools, with boy-mad Katie going to co-ed Saltbury High. Her parents are both rather straight-laced civil servants, but they have bred an incorrigible imp. Tina describes her as 80% giggles. She is almost 100%, and very enthusiastically straight, but doesn’t find Tina’s sexuality in any way a problem. In fact she had already worked it out before Tina officially came out to her in 2001. She still hugs her, links arms when walking and is generally touchy-feely, just as she always had been, which means a huge amount to a nervous Tina, scared of how her friends were going to take the news. She has a way of flirting outrageously with Tina, who reciprocates, confident that neither of them mean a word of it, although we are never totally sure that Katie would pass up the chance of an experiment. Katie is tiny, petite, and devastatingly pretty, with a luxuriant crown of long dark, naturally wavy hair. When out of school uniform she tends to dress as provocatively as she can get away with and even in uniform she winds her skirt up to shorten it. She can be rather self absorbed and bores easily, but is still kind and caring to friends once they can get her attention. In fact, her friends mean a lot more to her than her lovers, who she tends to treat as little more than play things. At 4′ 11″, she is one of the few people even smaller than Debbie Stewart. She is two months older than Tina, being born on 23rd May, 1985.Katie is bubbly, giggly and rather ditzy. She can even appear less than intelligent, but she isn’t, which makes her easy to underestimate, and she does very well in exams. In a way she’s a real innocent. She adores sex and can be distinctly promiscuous, it’s just that she treats it as she would chocolate or any other pleasure: as something to be enjoyed to the full without hang-ups. She also loves talking about sex, both her own love life and other people’s, and when she talks she tends to enjoy talking about the heartbreak side as well as the rapture, as if she sees her life almost as a work of fiction that she’s writing herself. That said, her friends are never quite sure that all her tales of adventure are true. Katie loves drama and the stage, and is a veteran of many school and am-dram play productions, where despite her giggly surface, she is very dedicated. She’s long wanted to study drama at University. It is one of the few things she really takes seriously. Once there, despite her giggly surface, she is a very dedicated student and then seeks a stage career with real gusto. She writes plays as well as performing. Katie as a 1st year student has an on/off boyfriend called Steve who she talks about obsessively, often to complain, but who she actually seems to be faithful to, at least when there’s anybody watching. She compares Tina and Carol’s journey from hatred to love to Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare’s ‘Much ado about nothing’, except, she says, that being gay they are actually Beatrice and Beatrice. After University, Katie breaks into acting. Steve and her have long since split up and she tends to keep her frequent sexual liaisons casual. It is her friends who really matter. She has an occasional affair with Carol Baxter’s older brother Gary. She also has a fling with a woman, Hazel and Tina’s old classmate Jenny Marlow, which was meant to be just a fun adventure, but which Katie finds much more involving than she expected. Over a period of years she fights the fact that she is in love with Jenny, hoping Jenny finds a long term relationship so she goes out of reach. Eventually though, with a little help from Sofie Fauld, the pair become a real couple. Katie is essentially heterosexual but homo-romantic and makes a compromise. The two are happy together. People in the ‘Gem’ think it won’t last the month but the two are happy together. They marry a year later, with Millie Baxter as a bridesmaid.
Annie (Ann Rose) Roberts (later Fauld). (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’ and ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Red’ and ‘Yvonne’). The love of Hazel Fauld’s life, Annie is 17 at the time of ‘Haze’, being born on 28th April, 1984. She has only just moved to Wyeburn when the story begins and is in the St. Ann’s Lower Sixth. She’s very worldly-wise having lived all over the world, rarely being in any one place for more than a few months. Her parents, Crystal and Barry, are troubleshooting civil engineers, who are brought in on major projects when problems arise. She talks of having lived in Saudi Arabia, the US, Australia and all over Europe, and she has an air of sophistication beyond her years, as well as a slight American accent, which Haze thinks is cool. It does though, mean that she’s rarely been able to form proper friendships for very long. Annie is a lesbian and at the time we meet her she’s missing her recent girlfriend, Allison who has had to move to Perth, Australia. Annie is pretty, with a trim, elegant figure and ice-blonde hair which she wears in a short pixie cut. Her eyes are almost as blue as Carol Baxter’s, but ‘nothing like as cold’. She is 5′ 7″, and unusually graceful in her movements. She’s a brilliant hockey player and Hazel describes her as turning the game into dance. Tina teases Hazel when she first starts to fancy Annie, that she would have to stand on a box to kiss her. Annie is a good pianist, a wonderful dancer and a great sportswoman. She is kind and outgoing and looks confident even when she doesn’t feel it, but she has an irresponsible streak that can get her and others into trouble. Annie flirts expertly with boys, as a cover for her lesbianism and Hazel initially assumes she is straight. Her parents are fully accepting of her sexuality and she is very much the apple of Daddy’s eye. Annie is fascinated by what her parents do and her ambition is to study Engineering at University, then follow them into the same field. She is an only child and the three are very close even though her parents are so busy that she is left to her own devices for much of the time. She spent much of her childhood being brought up by au-pairs or nannies. and is surprisingly well socialised for someone who has really been quite neglected. Her very rough birth so damaged her mother’s ‘plumbing’ (as she puts it) that she was never able to get pregnant again, so Annie is an only child. In London the family live at 9 Park Way, Beckenham, London SE20. Annie is poisoned with adulterated LSD while stuck living in L.A. when her parents are posed to a dam project. She is expected to die, but pulls through. However she is left in a soft of waking coma, not really knowing who she is, let alone anyone else. She doesn’t recognise Hazel and certainly isn’t in love anymore. She remains in this state for two years, by which time Haze has given up and moved on, but then she returns and cannot understand why Hazel isn’t her girl any more. The two had got engaged just before she was ‘harmed’. Slowly though, the slow process begins in which the two fall in love again and Annie’s recovery continues. Annie’s recovery is never quite total. She has to abandon her dream of becoming a civil engineer like her parents because she has balance problems and would never be safe up on scaffolding. For the same reason she can’t drive. In time she and Hazel begin living together and later (Sept 2007) marry. They don’t have children. Annie jokes that she is child enough for Hazel to care for. They move back to Wyeburn and live in the old station. By that time Fauld are Rock stars and Annie is a successful model. Later she gets just a touch of engineering by volunteering with a steam railway maintaining locomotives and rolling stock and Haze keeps her company by becoming a guard. Her childlessness is a growing sadness, though, especially as she approaches 40 and eventually Haze carries a daughter, Rosemary conceived from Annie’s egg.
Debbie Stewart. See Deborah Celeste Fauld.
Yvonne Jane Wright. (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Yvonne’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Sisters’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’). We first meet Yvonne as a lower sixth-former and chief hench-woman of St Ann’s terrifying Queen Bee, Beverley Dean. She is not (to say the lest) a conventionally pretty girl. Pippa, the daughter of ‘Gemini Club’ owner Doug Taylor, describes her facial expression as like ‘a pit-bull chewing nettles’. She is in the year below Bev, the year above Tina and Hazel, and the same year as Annie, being born on the 28th Jan, 1984. She is a closet lesbian, deeply in love with Beverly, but never in with a chance as Bev is straight and actively homophobic. She follows Bev just to be near her, but lives in fear of her finding out. She tries to seduce Annie Roberts, thinking she might be more attainable, but without success. She is a real bully and when Annie and Hazel get together she tries to intimidate Hazel into giving Annie up and leaving the field clear for her. She calls Hazel and Tina by their surnames and grabs Hazel by her tie, telling Tina to get lost, but she point blank refuses to leave her friend. Later she and Bev fall out and Yvonne tries to reform. Yvonne has short, curly, bright ginger hair. She is thickset, strong and tall for a woman at 5′ 8″ with a gruff, rather low pitched voice and out of school she dresses boyish. She comes from a fairly poor background, not like Tina and especially Hazel’s more gilded childhoods. Her father abandoned her and her mother years before and doesn’t meet his maintenance payments. Sometimes she feels the loss of her father and wishes she could somehow make him proud of her, but this is only an occasional yearning. She and her mother don’t even know where he is and he has shown no interest in either of them for years. That said, Jane and him are still technically married. They have never divorced. Her mother, Jane, has a full time office job and Yvonne works Saturdays in a fruit shop in Saltbury. They live in a small semi: 42. Laburnum Close, Saltbury. Her ambition is to become a vet and teachers Carol Baxter and Dr. Black encourage her once she leaves her bullying ways behind. They are the first members of the St. Ann’s school staff to believe in her. She is almost as good a hockey player as Annie Roberts and Carol makes her team captain when Annie has to leave. She turns out to be an inspired choice and under her leadership the team win the Inter-schools cup. In her final school year she gets a Saturday job at Jardine’s Fruit shop in Saltbury High Street. There she meets Julie Worth, a married woman, ten years her senior and with a young daughter. The two hit it off and over time a friendship turns into a romance. However, they still only snatch time together when Julie’s husband is at work and her daughter Mandy at play group. Eventually, though, the marriage breaks up. Meanwhile when she left school Yvonne gets a job on the bar at the ‘Gem’. She thinks she has blown her A-Levels, but it turns out not. She goes to Saltbury University to train to be a vet but continues to do bar work at weekends. Yvonne’s mother invites Julie and Mandy to move in with them and to everyone’s surprise, Yvonne becomes a nurturing stepmother. She eventually qualifies as a vet and marries Julie. She and Mandy slowly evolve from stepmother and stepdaughter to genuine friends. Mandy dotes on her. Yvonne gives Tina and Carol information on the dysfunctional Quantock family. She’s also present in court when Jane Quantock attacks Tina during Wendy’s custody hearing and is hugely impressed by the way Carol reacts and rescues Teen.
Jo Brodie 