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Kalinda Patel.  (Appears in ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Carol’ and ‘Sofia’).    She was the St. Ann’s School for Girls hockey captain in the year after Hazel, Tina and Jenny left school (2004/5).  By the start of the next year, she was at University away from the Saltbury area and couldn’t come when Carol Baxter invited her to help select the next year’s team.  She is British born of Indian descent. Years later, her daughter Nidhi becomes Millie Baxter’s best friend.  Teen and Kalinda actually meet for the first time since school at the ante-natal clinic and Kalinda is initially a bit confused to find a lesbian there and wonders if she and Carol have split up.  By pure coincidence, when Tina goes into labour she finds Kalinda already on the maternity ward.  The two give birth on the same day, with Kalinda’s daughter born an hour or two before Millie Baxter.  Later Kalinda tries to interest a rather bored pre-teen Nidhi in hockey.  A few years later she had a second child, a boy.  For a while she and her husband moved away to work in Birmingham, but they return when Nidhi is 7.

Nidhi Patel.  (Appears in ‘Millie’).  Pronounced Niddy.  She is the daughter of Kalinda Patel and her white British husband, Simon, although the family keep the name Patel.  She is born the same day as Millie Baxter.  She’s actually an hour or two older, something the girls giggle about when they are a bit older and best friends.  Despite her father, she’s very Indian in appearance, with black hair and a skin colour far more like her mother’s than her father’s.  Carol nicknames her and pale, red haired Millie the twins, because of their shared birthday.  Kalinda and the Baxters lost touch for a while when Kalinda’s husband, Simon, got promoted out of the area.  But they returned when Nidhi was 7 and she and Millie met again at Primary school and soon became friends.  By the time they are both 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.  Nidhi backs Millie when Wendy turns on her and tries to whip up homophobic sentiment amongst their classmates because of Millie’s Mums.  By the following year the permanent boredom is no longer cool and the friends have become sports-mad.

Simon Patel. (Appears in ‘Millie’.)  Simon is Kalinda Patel’s husband.  He is white British, something that originally upset Kalinda’s Indian parents, but he won them over by his obvious devotion. The couple met at university playing hockey and when Kalinda explained well before their wedding that in her culture women didn’t change their name on marriage, but the children took the husband’s name, he decided he’d change his name to hers so they all had the same.  When Kalinda later got pregnant, rather before they intended, Kalinda’s family all hoped for a boy, but Simon wanted a girl and got lucky when they had Nidhi.  They did have a boy a few years later.

Androcles Pawthorn.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’).   He is a land agent who helps to manage the estates of both Sir Jeremiah and George Prodnoze in the 1820s.  His business partner is the Earl of Dowchester’s Agent Erasmus Lud, which causes occasional conflicts of interests.  His father, also a land agent, was Aristophanes Pawthorn.

Leonidas Pawthorn.  (Appears in ‘Wyeburn Station’).   He is a very elderly Saltbury estate agent when Haze and Annie want to buy a house locally.  He is getting more than a little bit forgetful, albeit still fit to work.  His firm of Pawthorn and Lud is the successor to the land agent partnership started in the 19th century by Aristophanes Pawthorn and Erasmus Lud, who used to serve the Prodnoze family and the Earls of Dowchester.

Albert Peterfield.  (Mentioned in ‘Fracture’).   He is a rather sweet octogenarian undertaker who decides that he would like as much as possible of his legal work to be done by Tina Burns, rather than her father, even when she is still a trainee.  She suspects that he just likes having the undivided attention of an attractive young redhead now and then and suing someone was just the price he had to pay.

Lars Petersen.    (Appears in ‘Daughters’, mentioned in ‘Rachel’).    He is the new St. Ann’s School for Girls Geography teacher to replace the disgraced Mr. Whistler when Hazel and Tina are first in the 6th form.  His name might sound Scandinavian, but he speaks with a Devon accent.

Amy Phillipps.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Fracture’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Fracture’).  She was Roisin Fauld’s best friend and partner in crime at St. Ann’s School for Girls (Roisin’s equivalent to Hazel’s bestie, Tina).  The two rebels had a love of what Hazel describes as ‘Destruction testing the school rules’.  They remain very close friends in adult life, although they take very different paths: Raisin into modelling and Amy into business.  Amy was Maid of Honour at Roisin’s wedding to Colin, alongside Hazel.  She is an attractive brunette, slim but curvy and the same height as Rosh at 5′ 6″. She is very definitely straight, although in no hurry to settle down. She’s having way too much fun for that. But very supportive when Roisin finally comes out, so long as it’s clearly understood that she isn’t gay herself.  She squeals and hugs her when Rosh tells her and she’s really happy that Roisin has found herself.  She also jokes that with all the sleep-overs they had as girls, she can tell everyone she’s slept with a lesbian without actually having to.  They want to go to the pub with Hazel to get wasted and celebrate her engagement.

Tamsin Phipps.    ( Appears in ‘Roisin’. Mentioned in ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Sofia’).  She is a member of Hazel and Tina’s school year at St. Ann’s School for Girls.  She was in a snowman building team with them on a very cold January Games class in 2002.  She has a sweet tooth and ate most of the Pontefract cakes they were meant to be using for the snowman’s eyes, mouth and buttons.  She is a dreamy character, and is very into astrology, mysticism, lay-lines, UFOs etc, all of which Hazel thinks is nonsense.  She also repeats any conspiracy theory going.  She once told Haze that the Egyptian Government have hushed up that the great Pyramid has been stolen by aliens.  She gives the appearance of being rather dim, especially as she has a way of talking about anything but the topic of discussion, even in lessons, but she actually gets good marks in school. .  She catches the bouquet at Hazel and Annie’s wedding, much to Yvonne’s resentment. As an adult she becomes a teacher at St. Ann’s and teaches Sofie Fauld who says she can’t keep order.

Sergeant Arthur Pilkins. (Mentioned in ‘Annie’, ‘Carol’, ‘Daughters’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Millie’). He has an ice cream van which appears at every public event in Saltbury and is otherwise to be found in the park or going around housing estates. He doesn’t sell the usual whipped mush. His wares are all home made by his wife and daughter to their own recipes, and are absolutely delicious to the extent of acquiring local legend status. No one can understand why the family don’t sell the recipes under licence and become millionaires, but they either don’t want to or it’s simply never occurred to them. What exactly (if anything) he was a sergeant in is a mystery. Tina says he hardly seems to have aged between her parents buying her ices from him as a little girl and now, when she is buying them for her own daughter.

Pinkie.  (Mentioned in ‘Sisters’ and ‘Gold’).  We never learn her real name.  She is the girlfriend of Helen Armitage.  Helen is devoted to her, but often unfaithful when she’s away on business, although she makes sure Pinkie never finds out.

Jessica Plumley.  (Appears in ‘Penny’).  She is the slightly (two years) older girlfriend of Cynthia Clearwater, Penny’s mother.  The two live together.  She is a librarian and the couple actually met when civil servant Cyn was sent in to close her library.  She has a love of cars and is good at mending them.  She has backed Cyn to the hilt in her efforts to get back in touch with her daughter and is almost as thrilled as Cyn when Penny comes back into her life.  She has dark curly hair.

Jeff Pontefract (a.k.a. Dennis).   (Appears in ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’).   He is the officious jobs-worth stage door keeper at the Saltbury University concert hall.  In ‘Annie’, he tried to deny entry to Hazel and Annie, despite the fact that they have backstage passes when they go to watch Hazel’s Mum, Debbie Stewart, play there with ‘Aleyse’.  He is about to throw them out when Deb’s manager, Johnny Sherwin greets them and sweeps them in.  He plays up again when Hazel and Douglas go to see ‘Xeroed’ and even when Hazel is due to play at the hall as tour drummer with headliners, ‘Dark Portal’. and finally meets his match in ‘Sisters’ when Haze plays the University herself with ‘Dark Portal’.  Later, as Haze becomes a star he becomes thoroughly obsequious as he always has been with Deb.

Irene Popperwell.  (Appears in ‘Sisters’ Mentioned in ‘Roisin’).  She is the wife of Lambert below and co-runs the ‘Coal Man’ pub in London’s Mile End with him. Where he is spare and rather morose (Hazel says he sells beer grudgingly, as if he doesn’t really want to part with it), she is open, giggly and full of the milk of human kindness to everyone she meets (except Lambert) and calls absolutely everyone “darlin’ ” (except Lambert). Unfortunately she also tends to end every night drunk to the point on unconsciousness.

Lambert Popperwell.  (Appears in ‘Sisters’ and ‘Roisin’).  He is the rather shy, morose co-owner and landlord of the ‘Coal Man’ pub in Mile End, at least he is when his wife lets him.  This friendly pub has live bands and hosted Roisin and Hazel’s band ‘Fauld’ on their very first gig. His attitude to his wife’s manifest alcoholism is to rather sheepishly pretend it isn’t happening. When paying an all-female band like Fauld he has a tendency to try and find a man to give the money to, be it Roisin’s husband, Colin, or Gerry, their roadie. He pays cash in rather beer-soaked notes.

Dr. Daniel (Dan) Prentice.  (Appears in ‘Gold’).  He is an expert in Russian history at Queen Ann’s University, London.  He helps Tina, Carol and Prof. Renauld to translate the document Leather finds hidden in Svetlana’s relay baton.  He is described as dapper and shorter than Tina.  He is a name dropper who loves to meet famous people and even more loves others to think he knows a lot of famous people.  He is eager for Carol’s autograph and to have his photo taken with her as an Olympic gold medalist.

Mrs Poppy Prentice.  (Appears in ‘Sofia’).  No relation to Dan above.  She is the owner/manager of the Prentice Theatre in London’s West End.  She is a sweetie despite being a hard nosed, wealthy business woman.  She tries to chat up Sofie at a party, only in fun.  She likes wearing Hazel designed Goth/Steam-punk clothes and regularly hosts rather glittering show-biz parties.  She is a lesbian and likes to surround herself with pretty young girls, but only really has eyes for women her own age.

Richard Prentice.    (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’ and ‘Daughters’.  Mentioned in ‘Rachel’).    He is one of three Saltbury High School boys who go in on the school bus with Hazel Fauld and Annie Roberts every morning.  He is the same age as Annie and a year older than Hazel, Hazel has known him since they were infants.  He fancies Annie, but gets nowhere. For a while he is Hazel Fauld’s pretend boyfriend and wishes he could be the real thing.

Melanie Pringle.   (Mentioned in ‘Annie’).    She is a St. Ann’s 2nd year, given to losing things, especially her Games kit.  Hazel assumes she does it deliberately because she hates Games too and thinks she is very wise.

Allison Procter.  (Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, Sisters and ‘Debbie’s Gift’).  She was Annie Roberts’ girlfriend before Hazel Fauld.  She is a year older than Annie and had been something of a mentor as well as a lover.  However, her parents are in a similar itinerant engineer troubleshooting job to Annie’s and shortly before Annie moved to Saltbury Allison had to go to Perth, Australia and Annie is soon heartbroken to hear that she had found someone new.  It has left Annie  less sure of herself than she often appears, as she tends to assume that sooner or later any other girlfriend will also dump her.

Lady Elizabeth Prodnoze.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’).  She is the headstrong older sister of Sir Jeremiah, but thanks to the primogeniture rules of the time her kid brother inherited both the title and the estates.  She is deeply frustrated by the restrictions put on her by the society of the time.  She wants to lead an active productive life, but can’t and wiles her days away with a near obsessive passion for hunting.  The family are keen to marry her off in the hope that it will calm her down, or at least to get her off their hands, but she has little time for the local men of rank, and the feeling is mutual, so no-one is keen to take her on.  She is a lesbian, although she might not be aware of the fact, again given the lack of knowledge amongst many upper class women at the time.  However she soon falls in love with her returning cousin George.  Unlike everyone else, Elizabeth soon sees through him.  She knows full well before the marriage who or at least what he really is, but she is very happy to take a woman for a husband.  They even have three children, with a little help from their close friend, and distant cousin, Julius Prodnoze-Sumner.  There is no AI in those days, but they make do the old fashioned way!  She is, as a result, Dame Evadne Jackerman-Prodnoze’s Great-Great Grandmother through Elizabeth’s oldest son, Henry.

Evadne Prodnoze.  See: Dame Evadne Jackerman-Prodnoze.

George (Ann) Edward Prodnoze.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’. Mentioned in ‘Sofia’).  George is a cousin of Sir Jeremiah.  His father was George the third and youngest son of Jeremiah’s father (and his wife Emma), but rather than going into the church, as was traditional at the time, his father went into trade and ended up in India where he made an absolute fortune.  Both George’s parents died young in 1819 in the 1817-24 cholera epidemic in India, and George announced their deaths, along with that of his older sister Ann, in a letter to his English family, which announced that he had decided to return to Britain, deeming it more healthy. Communication between the two branches of the family had been somewhat sporadic thanks to the Napoleonic Wars, so Jeremiah on receiving the letter had not known he even had a cousin George.  Actually he doesn’t.  George is really Ann and has re-named himself after his father, but has taken the opportunity to start living as a man for the freedom that brings.  He was born as Ann in Naples in early 1797 and there is still a letter from the then British Consul, the famous Sir William Hamilton, acknowledging the birth and Ann’s British nationality.  However, the family then had to flee the French take-over of Naples, there was no Suez canal in those days, but the family went first to Alexandria and then to India.  He comes home immensely wealthy and rejoins the Prodnoze family.  He falls in love with his older cousin Elizabeth and  the family is so relieved that anyone is prepared to take her on, no-one much worries about the close family relationship.  The family notice a somewhat effeminate look to George and a more feminine sound to his voice, but they put it down to his exotic Indian upbringing.  George becomes a successful manager of his estates and other investments, and also joins in enthusiastically with Jeremiah’s philanthropic projects.  He and Elizabeth have a very happy life-long, if carefully concealed, lesbian relationship, but for cover, and to ensure a heir, they have three children, Henry, William and Charlotte, with help from their friend (and more distant cousin) Julius Prodnoze-Sumner.

Sir Granville Prodnoze (Baronet).  (1765- 1816)  (Mentioned in ‘History Girls’).    He was the 29th Baron Prodnoze.  He was a friend of Wilberforce and struggled at his side in the abolitionist cause.  He now has a memorial bust in Saltbury’s St. Ann’s parish church, where he is buried. He was the father of Sir Jeremiah and Elizabeth Prodnoze.

Sir Jeremiah Prodnoze (Hereditary Baronet).  (Appears in ‘History Girls’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sandie’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’).  He was an extremely wealthy early Victorian landowner and philanthropist who founded several of Saltbury’s institutions, including the University and St. Ann’s School for Girls.  The University main building is still named after him.  He was clearly rather vain and there is a statue of him in the Market Square, which he commissioned and paid for himself, unbidden “to save anyone else the trouble”.  He had a country house, but he also a rather grand Italianate town house in Saltbury’s Market Square built as a sort of miniature version of the Uffizi in Florence.  He only ever stayed there in summer though, having found out how unsuited such architecture was in the British climate, because it proved impossible to heat.  On his death, he left it to the town and it is now the Saltbury museum and art gallery.  The family was very old and stems from Gui de Proudnaze, a knight at arms who came over with the army of William the Conqueror.  They survived the Middle Ages via the usual few bouts of breeding back through junior lines and managed to change sides in the Civil War just quickly enough to keep their estates intact.  Good estate management and careful living through the later 17th century into the 19th allowed the purchase of additional lands until Sir Jeremiah was worth the equivalent of hundreds of millions, if not more, in today’s money.

Dr. Julius Prodnoze-Sumner.  (Appears in History Girls).  He is a distant cousin of the Saltbury Prodnoze family of the same generation as, if slightly older than Sir Jeremiah, George and Elizabeth.  He is a successful and highly innovative doctor.  He becomes a great friend of George’s and acts as something of a confident cum chaperone during he and Elizabeth’s courtship.  He is virtually the only person trusted with George’s secret and when the time comes that George and Elizabeth need an heir, in the absence of AI, Julius steps up as a distinctly direct type of sperm donor.

Sir Ralph Prodnoze (Baronet).  (Mentioned in ‘History Girls’).    The 28th Baron Prodnoze, he was the father of Sir Granville, he went insane towards the end of his life and began frittering away the Prodnoze estates gambling.  His son pretty much locked him in the attic.

Theodosius Prodnoze.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’).   He was the youngest brother of Sir Granville Prodnoze.  He became a merchant to seek his fortune and was in Naples when the Napoleonic Wars broke out.  He had to flee ahead of the French take-over, abandoning much of his business.  He went first to Egypt then was forced to flee again.  He ended up as an agent for the East India Company in Madras, where he made a huge fortune.  After the Wars he decided to return, but died before he was able to.

Sir Timothy Prodnoze.  (Mentioned in ‘History Girls’ and ‘Fracture’).  Rosie and Lexi’s research into the Prodnoze family finds that the Earls of Dowchester were not entitled after all to absorb the Prodnoze Baronetcy.  The true Baronet is a country doctor from Dorset, Timothy, later Sir Timothy Prodnoze who had no idea he was titled.

Sir Gui de le Proudnez, (mentioned in ‘History Girls’).  The 1st Baron Prodnoze.  He was a man at arms who came over with the army of William the Conqueror in 1066.  By being conspicuously gallant in front of the Duke he was made a Baron and given lands as a reward and founded the Prodnoze family’s fortunes.

Jacqueline (Jacquie) Purdue.  (Appears in ‘Penny’).  She is the mother of Penny Clearwater’s school friend Jasmine Purdue.  She was widowed when her husband Vince died very young, and Penny’s grandmother, Lilly, rather took her under her wing.  They eventually became lovers in a surprise at the end of the story.  Lilly (also a widow and maybe 20 years older) was deeply shocked at herself at first as she was a religious homophobe, but eventually came to terms with herself and proposed to Jacquie.  Sadly she died shortly afterwards, leaving Jacquie in mourning a second time.

Jasmine Purdue.   (Mentioned in ‘Penny’).   She was Penny Clearwater’s best friend at school.  Penny’s anti-lesbian obsessed grandmother, Lilly, occasionally suspected they might be lovers, but they never were.  Jas is totally straight.

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Jane Quantock.  (Appears in ‘Millie’).  She is the mother of Wendy.  She is a snob with a huge sense of entitlement and a lust for money and status.  She often has to be sued before she’ll pay any bill and virtually ignores her daughter.  She is powerfully strong and beats her husband who eventually feels so pushed out that he leaves.  He had been a battery chicken farmer and Jane keeps the business, driving her vet, Yvonne Wright, half mad by ignoring her advice.  Eventually she runs up so many animal cruelty violations that Yvonne gives up trying to nag her to change things and has no choice but to report her.  She is prosecuted and the business shut down.  It turns out that after her husband left she took to beating her daughter, culminating in a savage attack which leaves Wendy in hospital and Jane in a police cell.  She attacks Tina in court during a custody battle over Wendy, when Teen is acting for Wendy.  She turns out to be insane and believes herself to be Carol Baxter, who she envies for her success.

Robert (Bob) James Quantock.  (Appears in ‘Millie’).  He was a chicken farmer on a large scale, Jane’s ex-husband and Wendy’s Dad.  Unlike his wife (who beat him and drives him out) he is a good soul who dotes on his daughter and after Jane attacks and almost kills Wendy he manages to get custody of her, with legal help from Tina.

Wendy Quantock.  (Appears in ‘Millie’)  She starts as a nasty little madam at Millie Baxter’s primary school who tries to bully (and get others to bully) Millie because her mothers (Tina and Carol) are lesbians.  But it turns out that her mother is forcing her to.  It’s sheer jealousy on her mother’s part as she’s obsessed with money and status and is insanely jealous of Carol’s success and relative wealth as a former Olympian and now a sports and TV personality while Tina is a successful lawyer.  She sees Millie as a cowardly way of hurting her mothers.  Wendy’s Dad has fled, largely because her Mum is a violent controlling madam who physically abused him because she thought he didn’t get her enough money and standing.  She doesn’t pay her bills and eventually goes bust.  She eventually attacks Wendy for not bullying Millie enough, and injures her so badly that she needs emergency surgery.  Tina steps in as her lawyer, aided by Wendy’s cousin Becky Ward and helps Wendy’s father gain custody.  Eventually Wendy becomes friends with Millie Baxter and her best friend Nidhi Patel.

Wilfred (Wilf) Quentin.  (Appears in ‘Gold’).   He is a distinctly sleazy Dowchester photographer who Tina Burns occasionally has to do modelling for.  He does catalogue work for a national Department store chain who put a lot of work Tina’s way, and despite complaints from various models, including both Tina and her agent, the chain still hires him because he manages to make their less than brilliant stock look desirable.  However, he tries to talk unchaperoned models into doing porn, and quite possibly into sleeping with him too.  Katie Ralstrick manages to turn the tables by playing along and then locking him naked in his own studio.  To say the least, he is not particularly happy about that.

Ashley (Ash) Quinston.  (Appears in ‘Fracture’ and ‘Sofia’.  Mentioned in ‘History Girls’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Millie’).   She is a Saltbury Comprehensive girl who lives near Angela Glynbourne.  She had recently come out as a lesbian in 2006, aged 17, and was talking through issues with Angela, a friend of her mother’s.  But Angela was a teacher at her school so she found it hard to open up and Angela put her in touch with Cassie Valiant as someone her own age she might talk to.  Neither had had a girlfriend before and Angela was not trying to set them up with each other when she put them in touch, but there is definitely a spark and the two fall in love.  Ash is sweet natured with wavy brown hair and freckles around the tops of her cheeks that Cassie finds adorable.  The two otherwise look very alike and frequently share clothes so when Cassie is not in her St. Ann’s uniform many people think they’re sisters.  In fact they become known as ‘The Twins’ in the Gemini Club even though they are actually totally unrelated. For a while the couple break up in ‘Sofia’ thanks to the cruel machinations of Jade Mallory, but not for long once they work out what she’s done.  When the couple finally marry, a young Millie Baxter was a bridesmaid.

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Heather Ralstrick.  (Appears in ‘History Girls’. Mentioned in ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Martine’).    She was a classmate of Debbie Stewart’s and other members of ‘Xeroed’ (Nicky, Nige, Grant and Charlie) at school, back in the 1970s, when she was distinctly promiscuous.  She is the younger sister of Katie Ralstrick’s father and thus her aunt.  Katie is distinctly impressed, proudly telling her friends that if they think she’s a bad girl, they should meet her Aunty Heather, suggesting that she is still having fun in middle age.

Imogen Ralstrick.  (Mentioned in ‘Annie’ and ‘History Girls’).   She is Katie Ralstrick’s mother.  She is a civil servant.  Hazel described both of Katie’s parents as being staid, but loving, but with an odd blind spot when it comes to Katie’s distinctly adventurous love life.

Estela Ramon.    (Appears in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Sisters’).  She is the Faulds’ Spanish au-pair for the year after Dannie’s birth.

Colin Redman.  (Appears in ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Carol’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’.  Mentioned in ‘Haze’, , ‘Wyeburn Station, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’).  He is Roisin Fauld’s boyfriend and then husband.  He met Roisin at University and the two became real friends.  He is one of the few men who treats her as a respected equal and is not just trying to get in the model’s knickers.  They spend many hours talking about their studies of history, well before becoming a couple and eventually moving in together and they eventually get married.  He then continues to study for a Ph.D, wanting to be an academic, and Roisin supports them both with her modelling work.  Sadly though, even though they are the closest of friends, the marriage doesn’t last.  They break up when Rosh has an affair with Helen, her ex. They both want children ASAP, but Roisin finds she can’t have them.  He was born on 12th March, 1982 and is 5′ 10″ tall.  He has an older sister Mary. His parents live at 32 Sovereign Street, Clapham. He eventually marries ‘Fauld’s former keyboard player, Lizzie Fairchild and the couple have a son, Malcolm.

Malcolm Redman.  (Appears in ‘Millie’.  Mentioned in ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Fracture’.) He was born on Tuesday 9th May, 2006, the child of Róisin Fauld’s ex husband Colin and his friend, later wife, Lizzy Fairchild.  Millie Baxter has a bit of a crush on him, at 11, when he’s 17 and becoming more than a little bit handsome.

Matilda (Tilly) Redman.    (Appears in ‘Rachel’).  She is Colin Redman’s much younger cousin.  She was a bridesmaid at his wedding to Roisin Fauld in 2004.  She was 7 at the time.

Allison Redmayne.  (Appears in ‘Debbie’s Gift’).   She is a fellow music student when Annie starts university.  She is blonde, pretty, but small and rather shy.  She is very attracted to the year’s cad, Patrick Frazier and is initially jealous of Annie when he clearly prefers her.  When Annie make it very clear to Patrick and the rest of her year that she only has eyes for Hazel, Allison manages to get her man, but as they say: ‘be careful what you wish for’.  Patrick turns out to be exploitative and utterly unfaithful.

Camille Reilly.  (Appears in ‘Rachel’).  When Roisin and Hazel first start the London version of ‘Fauld’, she is its first bass player.  She is about the same age as Roisin, tall, slim and with long straight dark hair.  She plays a Rickenbacker bass with a plectrum  giving her a hard edged twangy style.  Like Hazel, she tends to wear black, but she dresses more Rocker than Goth, with studded leather jackets and she often has knee-length leather boots with heels.  She has a fiancé, though we know little about him.

Prof. Bernard Renauld.  (Appears in ‘Gold’).  He was Carol Baxter’s Professor at Queen Ann’s University when she did her Sport’s Science degree.  His particular specialty is sports biochemistry and he becomes involved in detecting the Mouranian performance enhancing drug scandal.  Despite her rather abrasive nature at that age, Carol became something of a favorite student of his and they remain friends.

Faith Renton.  (Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Rachel’ and ‘Martine’).    She was the bassist in a band that supported ‘Xeroed’ on tour.  She seduced Debbie Stewart’s then boyfriend, Nicky, who became so besotted with her that he broke up with Debbie to be with her.  She was every teenage boy’s dream of the sexy, experienced and sexually accommodating older woman (she was 24 when he was 18).  Eventually, though, he discovered that she could not have children and went back to Debbie, who he married shortly afterwards.

Irene Reynolds.  (Mentioned in ‘Haze’ and ‘Daughters’).  She is the English teacher at St. Ann’s School for Girls, and was Hazel and Tina’s lower sixth-form form mistress.

Tommy Rittles (a.k.a. stage name Tommy Hardman).  (Appears in ‘Sofia’).  He is an elderly actor and rather incompetent philanderer that Sofie Fauld meets through Katie Ralstrick.  He fails miserably to have his wicked way with her.  He tries desperately to look younger than his fairly advanced years, with dyed hair and Errol Flynn moustache.  Katie thinks he’s had plastic surgery to help him look young.  He was once a well known actor under the stage name Thomas Hardman, which was meant to be suggestive.  He turns out to be impotent and when he tries to touch-up starlet Angel Darling at a party, Katie and Sofie publicly humiliate him.

Duncan Robbins.  (Mentioned in ‘Annie’).  He was the rather oafish boyfriend of St. Ann’s Queen Bee, Beverley Dean in 2001.  Hazel describes him as “just her sort: loads of muscle and bone for brains.”  Bev finally dumps him when he forgets her birthday, but really because she has designs on good-looking new Geography teacher Mr. Whistler. He went to Saltbury High School, where he didn’t exactly shine.

Roberta.  (Appears in ‘Sandie’).  She is Sandie’s initial hall of residence roommate.  We never actually learn her family name. She is very homesick at first but soon comes out of her shell.  She is pretty and much better at handling boys than Tina’s roommate Samatha, if still a bit of an innocent.  She has a slightly earthy sense of humour which Tina likes.  She gets on well with Sam and they eventually agree to a room swap so that Tina and Sandie can be together.

Barry Roberts.  (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Fracture’. Mentioned in ‘Roisin’).   He is Annie Roberts’ father.  He and his wife Crystal are civil engineering troubleshooters who are called on to go all over the world to sort out major projects that have got into difficulties, but it is his wife Crystal who is the true engineering genius.  He is more the number cruncher: an expert of computer modeling and the like.  Both are huge ‘Xeroed’ fans and are delighted when their daughter gets to know Debbie Stewart.  They are perfectly at ease with Annie’s lesbian sexuality.  Annie is a bit of a Daddy’s little princess so Barry finds it very hard to cope with her long illness to the extent that he eventually pretty much runs away.  He was born in 1960.

Crystal Roberts.  (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’.  Mentioned in ‘Carol’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’).  She was born on 5th Oct, 1961 and is 5′ 6″ tall.  She is Annie Roberts’ rather youthful looking mother.  She and her husband Barry are civil engineering troubleshooters who are called on to go all over the world to sort out major projects that have got into difficulties.  She is the true engineering genius.  Her husband is more the number-cruncher, but such is sexism that the world often assumes that it’s the other way round.  Both are huge ‘Xeroed’ fans and are delighted when their daughter gets to know Debbie Stewart.  They are perfectly at ease with Annie’s sexuality.  Crystal comes to hugely respect and love Hazel Fauld for her devotion to Annie during her so-called ‘Blank years’, and during her recovery.

Gillian Rogers.  (Appears in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Roisin’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, Daughters’, Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Gold’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’).  She is a girl in Hazel and Tina’s class at St. Ann’s.  She is a tactless, “gobby miss” of whom they are not very fond.  She is not intentionally nasty, she just doesn’t think before opening her mouth and can be hurtful perhaps without really intending to be.  She fancies Geography teacher Mr. Whistler and makes clumsy attempts to be seductive by flashing too much cleavage, something of which even busty Hazel Fauld thinks she has a surplus.  Her one saving grace in Hazel’s eyes is that she is a huge cat lover; her family have four.  She has cat ear rings, stickers of cats on her school books etc and fears that Lia and her gang might try the dead cat in the desk trick on Hazel.  She is concerned about the cat though, not Hazel. She is a friend of Marlene Graham’s, as is Haze, so the two have to at least pretend to rub along. She is a mother by the time of ‘Wyeburn Station’.

Emma Roland.  (Appears in ‘Sofia’).  She is the second real love of Sofie Fauld’s life after her break-up with Amber.  The same age as Monster.  She is studying biochemistry at Saltbury University.  The couple meet in the ‘Gem’ when Emma goes to check the place out with a little group from the university GaySoc.  She is the only one not in a couple, but for Sofie it’s pretty much love at first sight.  Emma is slightly overweight, which she hates, but so was Amber, and Sofie likes it.  She thinks it suits her.  Sofie’s sister Danielle thinks it’s the physical type she goes for: plump, very feminine and curvy, with a sweet smile and red hair, in contrast to her own tomboy image.  Emma is not ‘out’ to her distinctly homophobic parents.  The pair are very much in love, but when Emma finally does come out, her parents do everything possible to break up the relationship and eventually pretty much blackmail her into breaking up with a heartbroken Sofie.

Simoné Romero.  (Appears in ‘Rachel’.)  Simoné was the Faulds’ au-pair from August 2003 to August 2004, including the time of the birth of their youngest daughter, Danielle.  She is Spanish and part of the Faulds’, and especially half Spanish Martine’s, desire to bring up their children to be bilingual English and Spanish speakers.  The Faulds always make it clear that LGBTQ applicants are welcome with their au-pairs, and Simoné, like her predecessor Adriana is gay.  She meets her girlfriend Susie Tredgold at the ‘Gem’ in Saltbury.  Susie is a curator at Saltbury museum.  Simoné is very protective of her charges, Sofie and Danielle, and takes something of a ‘Simoné knows best’ attitude to the point that she is sometimes wary of both of their parents in case they don’t entirely know how to care for children, this despite the fact that Deb and Martine have already managed to bring up their two grown up daughters, Roisin and Hazel.

Jennifer (Jenny) Rylands.  (Appears in ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘History Girls’, ‘Debbie’s Gift’ and ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Wyeburn Station’, ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’).  She is the talented photographer that Faulds use for their fashion photo-shoots and one of the few photographers Martine Fauld trusts to get the best out of their models and clothes.  She has a very gentle soft spoken approach to directing the models, which Tina Burns finds particularly reassuring, although she can be pretty scathing at other times.  We also meet her as the photographer taking some of the cover shots for Debbie Stewart’s solo album, ‘Daughters’ and for ‘Fauld’s first EP and Sofie Fauld’s first album cover.  She is still working at Faulds when Millie Baxter starts modelling.

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Roy Saddler.    (Appears in ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’. Mentioned in ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Sofia’).    He is the father of Connie Fauld’s illegitimate daughter Isabel (now Watkins), although he posed as her brother for most of her childhood.  He and Connie renew their relationship after a mere 35 year break when the truth comes out and Connie and Isabel are reunited.  The two fifty somethings are soon behaving like teenage lovers. They rather ridicule the idea of marriage, instead enjoying the sense of sinful mischief, and by the time of ‘Sofia’ in 2021 they still haven’t taken the plunge, despite Andrea’s disapproval.

Guy St. Claire.  (Appears in ‘Daughters’. Mentioned in ‘History Girls’).  He is a dispatch worker for Faulds Fashions.  His pretty daughter Zoe models the firm’s young adult range from the age of 16.

Zoe St. Claire.  (Appears in ‘Daughters’ and ‘History Girls’.  Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Roisin’).  When Roisin enters her twenties and has to move on from being a Fauld’s teen model, 16 year old Zoe is brought in as the nearest Martine could get to Tina when Teen initially refused to join the firm.  She is an employee’s daughter: Guy St. Claire, in Dispatch.  She has long, red hair.  She is shorter than Teen and with a little less bust, but a lovely smile.  Haze is quite impressed with how she moves.  She is straight, and talks incessantly about her boyfriend, Trev.  She is not exactly an intellectual giant, but she’s a friendly soul, if a teensy bit tactless in tending to assume that Hazel is only gay because she can’t get a boy.  In ‘Rachel’, now two years older, she models Goth dresses designed by Hazel and looks devastating.

Sam (Samantha).  (Appears in ‘Sandie’)  We never learn her family name, but Sam is Tina Burns’ initial hall of residence roommate at University.  She is giggly and slightly insipid – an innocent abroad, although pleasant enough.  She is boy mad, but useless at dealing with them, tending to go all coy and virtually hide whenever she has a boy interested.  At University she goes home every weekend, taking her washing with her.  She is also rather impractical.  Tina has to wire up her computer and stereo for her when they first move into hall, and in the case of the latter, once she sees Sam’s collection of rather twee kiddie pop music, she wishes she hadn’t.

Dr. Grace L. Sanderson.  (Mentioned in ‘History Girls’).  She was St. Ann’s School for Girls’ great reforming headmistress in the years between the two World Wars.  She radically widened the curriculum to include sciences, against considerable local opposition, especially when she wanted to include Biology.  She also persuaded the town to fund the construction of the New Building to provide extra classrooms, including laboratories, and to fund science teachers.  Her nick name amongst her pupils was ‘Our Gracie’, after Gracie Fields.

Andréia Sandosa.  (Appears in ‘Gold’).  She is a Brazilian middle distance runner who Carol Baxter competes against at the 2008 Olympics and the 2009 World Championships.  She is young and very fast, but ultimately lacks the discipline to beat Carol.  Carol knows she will be a truly great runner once she learns proper race tactics, but not yet.

Khaleel Sharif.  (Appears in ‘Annie’).   He was the bass player in the original, Manchester University, incarnation of Roisin Fauld’s band, ‘Fauld’.  He was a first year when the band first formed.  He is technically Muslim, and doesn’t drink alcohol, but is otherwise distinctly lacking in religious fervor and very anti-sexist.  He is more than happy to accept Roisin as leader and outraged at the trouble Hazel has getting accepted by a band as a female drummer.

Jonathan (Johnny) Sherwin.  (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’, ‘Penny’. ‘Aleyse’, ‘Martine’, ‘Debbie Speaks’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Sofia’.  Mentioned in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Millie’).  Johnny is Debbie Stewart’s and ‘Xeroed/Aleyse’s manager and close friend.  He is just under ten years older than Deb.  His parents and Deb’s were close friends so he has known Deb all her life.  He used to baby-sit her to make pocket money, and still calls her ‘Little One’ as he did when she was a tot.  He is devoted to her and, indeed, more than slightly in love with her.  They were briefly lovers when Deb was 17 and again for a while after Nicky’s death when she was 18 and it was actually him who broke off the relationship because he felt that he was exploiting her.  He remains very protective towards her and is a huge fan of Martine’s, who he thought from the outset would be perfect for her and who would also protect her.  He is known in the music world for being a truly honest man.  He was born on 21st December, 1946 and is quite small, being 5′ 5″ tall and rather delicate looking.  Later, he also becomes manager of ‘Jilly Evans’ band ‘Mother’s Arms’, Hazel and Roisin’s ‘Fauld’ and Ruth and Aleyse Guptah’s ‘Sboorial’.  He is godfather to Debbie’s daughter Sofie. Deb and Martine trust him so much that on tour, when Marty can’t be with her, Deb sleeps with him for protection, after an attempted rape by a fan early in her career. They have been doing it now for several decades and Johnny has never betrayed her trust. It has always been wholly platonic. Tina advises Sofie to go through the pre-nup she writes for her before she ‘marries’ Tara and Andrew.

Paul D. Sherwin.  (Mentioned in ‘Debbie Speaks’, Martine’ and ‘Sofia’).  Johnny Sherwin’s father.  He is a Saltbury business man with an office near the station, on the corner of Cross Street and Station Road, Saltbury.  He has been a friend of Debbie Stewart’s father, Joseph, since their school days.  They have lunch together most days.  That friendship is the reason that Johnny knew Deb pretty much from her birth.  He is married to Trudy, a brilliant cook.  Despite being Joseph Stewart’s best friend he thoroughly disapproves of the way he treats his daughter and does his best to fight her corner when Joseph throws her out.  The two almost come to blows, but Joseph is unmoved and never speaks to Debbie again.

Prof. Brenda Sibbald.  (Mentioned in ‘Sandie’)  She is the Professor of English Literature at Saltbury University and is a thinly disguised version of Jo Brodie herself.  She writes a series of LGBTQ novels under the pen name Sapphire Breydon.  They are all based in and around a mythical market town called Ulthorpe in Hampshire, but everyone knows that Ulthorpe is really modelled on Saltbury (wheels within wheels eh?).  Tina’s girlfriend Sandy adores her work and came as a student to Saltbury University all the way from her home on the Norfolk coast just to study with her.

Douglas Simkins.  (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’.  Mentioned in ‘Sisters’ and ‘Wyeburn Station’).  He is one of three boys from Wyeburn who go on the school bus to Saltbury every morning with Hazel Fauld.  He is a friend of Hazel’s from childhood, and later, when Hazel faces homophobic abuse, he pretends to be her boyfriend as a smokescreen.  He was a Lower sixth-former at Saltbury High in ‘Haze’ and ‘Annie’.  In ‘Daughters’ he has graduated to the Upper-Sixth and in ‘Rachel’ he is a student.  He is a Wyeburn lad and Hazel Fauld has known him since infancy.  He fancies Annie, but gets nowhere.  He also fancies Hazel before he finally accepts that he is on a hiding to nothing.  As children, he and Hazel loved trying to dam up the stream and were forever driving Martine and Mrs Leyford mad by falling in and tramping mud through the cottage.  Debbie thought it was hilarious. His family own Simkins Discount Furniture in Saltbury.

Dr. Emma Simons.  (Mentioned in ‘Haze’ and ‘Annie’).  She teaches Physics at St. Ann’s School for Girls.  Annie Roberts regards her as dull but sound – not the fanciful type, which is why she depicts her as panicking when she tells Haze, Tina and Rosie a ghost story..

Martin Simpson.  (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Daughters’ and ‘Rachel’. Mentioned in ‘Fracture’).  He is Hazel Fauld’s favourite drummer, apart from her godfather and mentor, Charlie Hides.  He is also one of the few local Saltbury drummers who takes Hazel seriously as a female drummer.  He is into Goth music.  As a teenager he was in a band called ‘Stake’ which dressed as vampires and made a couple of singles which Annie later found for Hazel as a present.  By the time of ‘Haze’ he is in an up and coming local band called ‘Strychnine’ which Hazel loves.  Martin writes the music for both bands and ‘Strychnine’ eventually make it bigger, with a little help from ‘Fauld’, partly on the strength of his music, and partly because of their very sexy singer Lornie.

Sergei Skryvatkov.  (Appears in ‘Gold’. Mentioned in ‘Fracture’)  (The name is false and a joke, it means Secret Sergei)  He is a University biochemist from ex-Soviet dictatorship Maurania, and the boyfriend of athlete Svetlana Boreshkova.   He’s also a member of the Mauranian intelligence service detailed to discover whether the West has detected their attempts at drug cheating in sport.  What his bosses don’t know is that he’s also a dissident.

Miss Beatrice Snape.  (Appears in ‘Penny’).  She’s the Clearwater family solicitor and advises Penny after the death of her grandmother Lilly.  Hazel Jones says that she looked so like a girls’ school headmistress from a 1950s comedy that she was half surprised to find her in colour, not black and white.  However, she might look frail but “she shook our hands with a firm grip and spoke in a voice rich with confidence”.

Camilla Southgate.  (Appears in ‘Wyeburn Station’).   She is a model for Faulds’ adult clothes with Tina and Annie, being much the same age as Teen.  She is an attractive brunette who they rather like, although she wears her slight homophobia behind a rather too transparent “aren’t I being liberal” façade.

Courtney Stafford.  (Appears in ‘Daughters’.  Mentioned in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’, ‘Roisin’ and ‘Debbie’s Gift’).  She is a young lesbian who lives with her girlfriend, Paige in Los Angeles.  She and Page become friends with Annie Roberts when her parents as transferred to work in L.A. Annie and Hazel stay with them one night after going to a gig in town.  She is older than her girlfriend and works as a computer specialist.  She has straight brunette hair.  She and Paige were with Annie when she took adulterated acid at a gig in L.A. and it was them who got her to hospital so quickly, which is probably what saved her life.

Judge Joshua Stevens.  (Appears in ‘Millie’).  He is the only civil judge in Saltbury who holds court in the room in the Town Hall which also serves as the Council Chamber.  He presides over the custody hearing for Wendy Quantock in which Jane Quantock attacks and tries to strangle Tina and to say the least he is most definitely not amused by her antics.

Debbie Celeste Stewart.   See Deborah Fauld.

Joseph Stewart.  (Appears in ‘Debbie Speaks’.  Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Martine’ and ‘Sofia’).  He is Debbie Stewart’s domineering father: a hard-nosed Saltbury businessman and a strict Victorian-style father who expects to be obeyed without question by his wife and daughter.  He has little time for daughters in fact, and has never really forgiven Debbie, his only child, for not being a son.  When she leaves school against his wishes to take up music as a career he throws her out and despite her huge success he never relents.  His wife is too under the thumb to argue.  He also hated Deb’s husband Nicky and even more so he hates the fact that she later contracts a same-sex marriage after Nicky’s death.  He refuses to see any of his grandchildren because he says they were conceived in adultery (All were actually conceived by AI). The only time they ever came close to bonding was over Joseph’s passion for astronomy, which was also the reason for Deb’s little used middle name: Celeste. But he refuses to become involved with the tight knit community, or to co-operate with village events.  The locals despise him as a result, and find his treatment of Debbie repellent.  He dies in 2021 still unreconciled with his daughter.  Debbie and the whole family attend the funeral.

Mona Stewart.  (Appears in ‘Sofia’ and ‘Millie’. Mentioned in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Rachel’ ‘Martine’ and ‘Debbie Speaks’).  Born in 1929 as Desdemona Pearson, Mona is Debbie Stewart’s mother.  She is a bit of a cipher to her overbearing husband and bad at protecting or standing up for her daughter.   In fact she rather wishes Deb would be more supine herself to appease her father and thus give Mona a quieter life.  She never had a job after getting married, but was away from the house as often as she could be.  Deb got the impression that she was not happily married, but was trapped.  She did, though, have a deep love of music, although it was much repressed by her husband.  Deb thinks that this is part of where she gets her own love of music, even though her mother was a classical fan, only.  Deb tends to remember her with little more than contempt, however. Mona is an old girl of St. Ann’s and wanted her daughter to go there too, but her husband vetoed the idea because there were fees and said outright: ‘What kind of fool would pay to educate a girl?’ thus insulting his wife, her parents and his daughter in just ten words.  She had had great difficulty conceiving.  She was 27 and five years married when she had Deb then never managed again, to the fury of her husband who wanted a son.  He made it clear that he thought he was being very honourable in not divorcing her for someone more fertile. Her husband dies in 2021 and a now grown up Sofie and Danielle Fauld visit her without their mother’s knowledge to try to reconcile the family.  She stayed with her husband, but didn’t shed many tears when he died.  Later she and Deb reconcile after Sofie and Dannie turn up on her doorstep.  She attends and enjoys Sofie’s not quite wedding to Tara and Andrew.

Robert (Rob) Stewart.  (Appears in ‘Rachel’ and ‘Sisters’ .  Mentioned in ‘Debbie’s Gift’, ‘Fracture’ and ‘Sofia’).    Robert is Debbie Stewart’s cousin through her father’s younger brother.  He is the father (by AI) of Roisin and Hazel Fauld, although they were only told this in their teens.  We readers find out at Roisin’s wedding, when he gives away the bride.

Miss Deirdre Stone.   (Appears in ‘Haze’, ‘Annie’, ‘Daughters’, ‘Rachel’, ‘Carol’ and ‘Red’. Mentioned in ‘History Girls’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Gold’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Millie’).  Universally known (but not to her face) as ‘old Stoneface’, she is the strict, but fair and ultimately kindly headmistress of St. Ann’s School for Girls in Saltbury.  She is said to have made herself almost a caricature girls’ school head, with steel grey hair in a tight bun, pale blue eyes behind metal framed half moon glasses on a chain, that she looks over as much as through, and a stare which Tina says looks right into your soul, via whatever you were trying to hide from her.  She was originally a Latin teacher in a school that now no longer teaches Latin.  She has great respect for Carol Baxter and was impressed at her honesty in coming out to her when she first came to interview for a post, rather that trying to hide her sexuality.  She occasionally goes out on a limb for her.  We are never quite 100% sure that she might not be lesbian herself.  Certainly she has never shown much interest in men.  She thinks retirement ages are for other people and is 73 at the time of ‘Haze’, being born on 16th August 1928, and another 4 years older and still in office by the time of ‘Red’.  She is slight and small at 5′ 3″.  Hazel says that Yvonne could pick her up with one hand, but she has a charisma that makes her seem bigger and gives her near effortless mastery over her staff and pupils alike. She has finally retired by the time of ‘Wyeburn Station’ and been replaced by Dr. Black, but Carol Baxter meets her on Saltbury High Street in 2024, still going strong.

Ruby Sydania.   (Appears in ‘Rachel’, ‘Sisters’ and ‘Chantel’.  Mentioned in ‘Roisin’, ‘Fracture’, ‘Wyeburn Station’ and ‘Sofia’).  She is the Sappho’s bouncer/cloakroom attendant.  She is good at her job.  She is black West Indian, gay and has a big heart. She mothers everyone – at least if you aren’t Zara Browning, and don’t make trouble.  She is about 40, sweet natured, bouncy, busty, generous and promiscuous: a semi detached ‘Docker’. That is until she and the ‘Skipper’, Chantel Barham, fall in love. The two had been getting closer for some time and were more and more becoming lovers to the exclusion of all others.  She has a younger sister called Sapphire.  Her parents liked jewel girls’ names.  She finally marries Chantel in 2006.  Martine Fauld made her wedding dress gratis as a thank you for saving Hazel from the evil Zara.