Some New Characters

As we progress through more chapters, new characters appear. Below is a dramatis personae update.

Fox Corner, neighbours & visitors

Lane near Beaconsfield

'I've got some oak leaves and some tiny baby acorns.'

Photocopyright: David Hawgood

www.geograph.org.uk/photo/123769

Jimmy - The youngest Todd sibling

The Shawcross family - next-door neighbours including Gertie, Winnie, Millie, Nancy and Bea

The Coles - neighbours including Ben and Daniel

Clarence Dodd - Bridget's boyfriend, replacing Sam Wellington

The Daunts - from nearby Ettringham Hall

Gilbert Armstrong - friend of Maurice

Howie, later Howard S. Landsdowne III - least best said

Harold - Pamela's husband

Nigel, Andrew and Christopher - Pamela's children

Edwina- Maurice's wife

Philip and Hazel - Maurice's children

Fred Smith - A railwayman - at the moment!

Mr Carver - Runs the secretarial college Ursula attends

Beaconsfield Railway Station

London

Dr Kellet - Harley Street psychiatrist

Hilda - Ursula's supposed flatmate

Derek Oliphant - Ursula's husband

Crighton - Ursula's lover from the Admiralty

Ralph - friend or lover depending

Neighbours in Argyll Road

Mrs Appleyard and Emil 

Lavinia and Ruth Nesbit

Mr Bentley

Miss Hartnell

The Millers including various boys and Renee

Munich

The Brenners including Klara, Hilde, Hanne and Helmut

Jurgen Fuchs - Half-cousin to the Brenners and later Ursula's husband

Frieda - Ursula and Jurgen's daughter

Inside The Berghof

Eva Braun - Ursula meets her through the Brenners

Albert Speer - Hitler's chief architect

Some Thoughts

Woman at a Café. Antonio Donghi. 1932

Our book starts, it would seem in November 1930, in a Munich café. Although, now this is my second read, I wonder if this is the beginning or the end? What do we want it to be?

Look here to see what was happening in November 1930

Never mind, jumping around in time is typical of Kate Atkinson's work and presenting the reader with various strands of possibilities is peculiar to Life After Life.

The German based thread of Ursula's life is picked up later on. After this pastry filled beginning worthy of a spy thriller, we are taken to a crucial date, revisited various times in this novel:

11 February 1910

Summary of February 1910

Events of 1910

Here is where the whole crux of the matter starts, the gimmick of this story if you like. How a shift in circumstance can have tremendous repercussions. A baby dies. A baby lives. A repellent dictator is disposed of before he has a chance to inflict misery on millions. We'll leave the wider consequences of that particular possibility for later.  For the moment we are given the opportunity to get to know Ursula, her family and the general household.

A Woman in Bed by a Snowy Window. Clifford Harper

As ever with Atkinson, stories are told and characters drawn in a word, in a sentence.

In these early chapters we are introduced to:

• Sylvie: - even her name oozes luxury - Ursula's mother

• Hugh: Ursula's father, and his sister Isobel

• Maurice and Pamela: her brother and sister

• Dr Fellowes: both not present and present

• Bridget: unswervingly the same in all strands of existence

• Mrs Glover: "cook" and her son George

• Alice: parlour maid

• Mrs Haddock: midwife who never makes it to Fox Corner

Next time I hope to look at the early settings of the book, as well as weather and cultural references - Mrs Glover's piccalilli seems like a good place to start. Why is Dr Fellowes so keen on it? How does he even know about it?