Muddy Boots and Silk Stockings - Characters

SPOILERS!!

 

These are the characters in the novel for future reference:

• Alice Todd is the warden and cooks and looks after the land girls on the farm. When Alice got the job, she had doubts about her ability to do the job. Alice has a son, Edward-John, and her husband, who is an officer in Cambridge, has left her for his secretary. Now he wants a divorce. In the book Alice finds herself the centre of attention of Oliver Maynard, an army officer, and Mr Bayliss, who owns the farm. When Oliver tells her that he wants her in his life, she turns him down, saying that it is too soon after the end of her marriage. 
• Rose Crocker is Alice's assitant at the farm. She has lived there all her life, and when Alice first arrives, she resents her because she thought she would be given the job. Rose is temperamental and has no problems in speaking her mind. She is widowed and has a son who is away at war. 
• Roger Bayliss owns the farm. He has a son, Christopher, and his wife died years ago. Roger is attracted to Alice, but when he notices Maynard's interest in her he grows jealous. He has never said a word to Alice about how he feels.
• Marion Grice is one of the land girls. She is good friends with Winnie, and both of them appear fun-loving and cheeky. Marion is not attractive, but she knows how to use make-up and clothes to appear good-looking. Alice discovers that she and Winnie become entangled with men for money, because their plan is to own their own plan. At Christmas she meets Sergeant Marvin Kinski, and even though he is not attractive, she feels attracted to him, and he may be the reason why her plans with Winnie may be thwarted.
• Winnie Spriggs (18) is Marion's best friend, and both of them are fun-loving and cheeky. When Winnie becomes pregnant and  causes the baby to die, she has to go to hospital and Alice discovers that she and Marion become entangled with men for money, because their plan is to own their own plan. This is not the first baby that Winnie has lost. When Marion tells her about meeting Sergeant Marvin Kinsky, she feels that he may be the reason why her plans with Marion  may be thwarted.
• Hester Tucker (18) is another land girl. Her family is very religious and when she first comes to the farm, she is shy and thinks that everything is sinful. By seeing the girls wearing lovely dresses and having fun, Hester realises that she envies them. When in an event organised by Alice and Maynard she meets Reuben, she has no compuncction in having fun with him. After that, they write to each other regularly, and at Christmas he proposes to her and she agrees to marry him. Her family is disapproving of Reuben, and she fears she will have to marry Reuben withtout her family's blessing.
• Mabel Webster (20) is another land girl. She is big and at first she smelt. Mabel and Ferdie develop a strange relationship,, and she often goes to his cottage to cook for him. Mabel often talks about her young son, and Marion and Winnie think that the boy is her son. 
• Georgina Webster is another land girl. She comes from a well-off family who own land, and she can even fly a plane. Georgina claims to be a pacifist when she first comes to the farm. Then her ideas change after she sees the terrible things that happen during the year. Then she decides to join the Air Transport Auxiliary, and at the end of the book she leaves the farm to start her new job. Georgina also has an up-and-down relationship with Oliver Bayliss. When he is arrested and sent to hospital, she is the one who visits him, but she knows she is not in love with him. When she tells him about her new job, he gets angry. Yet, they make up at Christmas and when he kisses her, she feels that this could be the beginning of something. 
• Hannah-Maria Sorokova (Annie) (18) is another land girl. Her family come from Poland, and she worked in her uncle's factory, which make the land girls' clothes. Then she was tired of making these clothes and never wearing them, so she decided to volunteer. Annie mentions Peter, a boyfriend, who she has known all her life, but she and Lionel start a relationship, but she feels that she and Lionel have no future as she is not posh enough. 
• Gwenna Pringle (Taff) is another land girl. This is the one we know least about, and she tends to be unfriendly and rude towards everybody. 
• Christopher Bayliss is Mr Bayliss's son. He is a pilot, but after experiencing some hard events, his nerves can't stand the situation. He runs away, but he is arrested as a desertor and sent to a hospital where he recovers. After he is discharged, Christopher moves to the cottage his father's lumberjack lived in and he starts working in the forest. He is in love with Georgina, so he is upset when she turns him down, and then he is angry with her when she joins the Air Transport Auxiliary. Yet, at the end of the book they make up. 
• Ferdinand Vallance (Ferdie) works on the farm and he is disaabled as a tractor run him over, leaving him with a limp. Her mother died a couple of years ago, and since then, his cottage is messy and he doesn't have a cooked meal. When he meets Mabel, the girl and he start a friendship, which leads to her going to his cottage and cooking for him. So far, their relationship is just friendly. 
• Fred is the other labourer on the farm. 
• Lionel Webster (19) is Georgina's brother. Since he is the only son who can work the land of his family, he is not obliged to go to war. Lionel starts a relationship with Annie, but at the end of the book he has doubts about her because she still sees her boyfriend from time to time or maybe because she is not of his class. In any case, Lionel has asked Drusilla, the daughter of his parent's friends, out. He also wants to volunteer to fight the war. 
• Oliver Maynard is stationed near the farm. He is an officer and meets Alice when he almost runs her over when she was cycling back to the farm. Oliver and Alice become friends and meet regularly. His relationship with his wife went awry after she miscarried, and as they were stationed in different places, things became even worse. Diana had a few flings, and she finally wrote to Oliver about falling for someone else and wanting a divorce. When Oliver is to be transferred, he tells Alice about his feelings for her and how he wants her to come with him, but she politely declines. 
• Iris Butler is the land girl who replaces Chrissie. 
• Arthur (2) is Mabel's brother, but the girls believe he is her son.
• James Todd is Alice's husband. He started an affair with his secretary and left Alice, and now he wants a divorce. 
• Edward-John Todd (10) is Alice's son. Now that she works for the Womane's Land Army, the child boards from Monday to Friday and spends weekends with her. Edward-John loves life on the farm. 
• Margery Brewster is ther representaive of the Women's Land Army, and she is the one who hired Alice.
• Reuben Westerfelt is the American soldier that Mabel fell for. He asks her to marry him and she agrees. 
• Dave Crockett is Rose's son. He is away fighting.
• Sergeant Marvin Kinski is a US marine who Marion seem to have fallen for.
• Drusilla Marshall is the daughter of Lionel and Georgina's parents' friends, and Lionel asks her to go to a party with him. 
• Elileen is Mr Bayliss's housekeeper and cook. After Mrs Bayliss died, she looked after Christopher. 
• Nora Fuller is a girl who arrives at the farm, claiming to be a new farm girl, but one of Maynard's men knows her, and they discover that Nora is a schoolgirl who ran away from her boarding school. When the truth is discovered, she returns to her school.
• Christine Wilkins (Chrissie) was a land girl. She married her boyfriend, and when he was giving a twenty-four hour leave, she asked Alice for permission to go and see him. Yet, Mr Bayliss refused, but Chrissie still went to Plymouth to see him. Then a German plane fell on the guesthouse where she was staying and she was killed.
• Andreis van der Loos was a Dutch Jew who Mr Bayliss allowed to stay in his shed. He left Holland when things started to go wrong. Andreis is an artist and starts a painting about the war with Annie as his model. When he finishes the painting, he has decided to go back and fight in Holland. However, he kills himself. 
• Zeke is Hester's brother.
• Ron was Chrissie's husband.
• Pete is Annie's boyfriend.
• Penelope Fischer is James's secretary and personal assistant, who became his lover.
• Mrs Bowden was Alice's neighbour and landlady where she used to live in Exeter.