Victor Canning: characters, themes and locations

Barnstaple (Firecrest, The Mask of Memory, The Kingsford Mark, Birdcage, The Satan Sampler)

Town in North Devon. Victor Canning lived in the vicinity in South Molton for much of the 1970s. In Firecrest the house High Grange where John Grimster questions Lily is close to it, and it is where he takes her to visit the hairdresser; it is also where Harrison is staying. In The Mask of Memory it is not named explicitly but is clearly the town where the main action takes place, and where Kerslake, later to be recruited into Birdcage, is a policeman on the local force and first meets Quint at the Empress Hotel. Margaret Tucker lives there. The town also features in The Kingsford Mark as the town where Carlo Graber has a fight with local thugs over insulting remarks about his girl, Birdie. He damages the assailant, but the fight is hushed up, though the record of the incident is one piece of evidence pointing the investigators towards him after the murder of Sir Charles Read. It is also where Carlo makes the telephone call after the shooting posing as a member of an Arab/German terrorist group. In Birdcage and The Satan Sampler it is remembered as the town where Kerslake used to work as a policeman. He recalls how, when he was a boy, a rival had broken into his father's pigeon loft and wrung the necks of all the birds. This gave him the notion of becoming a policeman, from where he was recruited to Birdcage. His first meeting with Quint was, he remembers, in a bedroom in the Imperial Hotel in Barnstaple. Was this a memory lapse of Canning's part, or was it that there is a real-life Imperial Hotel in Barnstaple which he was disguising as the "Empress Hotel" in the earlier book?

Birdie (The Kingsford Mark)

Nickname of Ethel Mavis Carter, farmer's daughter and lover and fiancée of Carlo Graber.

Carter (The Kingsford Mark)

Farming family who farm Great Cotter. Their daughter Ethel Mavis, known as "Birdie", meets and falls in love with Carlo Graber.

Clay-pigeon shooting (The Kingsford Mark)

John Kingsford finds out from a session with clay pigeons that Carlo Graber is a good shot.

Cogswell and Harrison .257 (The Kingsford Mark)

A Mauser pattern rifle, used for deer stalking, which had belonged to John Kingsford's father. Knowing it had never been licensed, Kingsford means to use it to kill Sir Charles Read.

Darch, Hannah (The Kingsford Mark)

Local farm girl that Parson John dallies with in 1872. We learn from the final diary entry in 1922 that she became pregnant, confronted the Parson to demand that he marry her, and died after he pushed her down a hill, and this has weighed on his conscience through the years.

Darlock House (The Kingsford Mark)

The home of John Kingsford. It is an estate with moorland and some tenant farmers, in Devon near the border with Somerset.

Graber, Carlo (The Kingsford Mark)

Central figure in the book. A 17-year-old boy who comes to stay in the house of John Kingsford, thinking that Kingsford is his real father. He delves into Kingsford's secrets and then carries out the murder that Kingsford is afraid to commit.

Graber, Margaret (The Kingsford Mark)

Mother of Carlo. Has just died before the book opens, probably because of alcoholism. In a drunken outburst she had told the boy that he ws conceived on a visit to Darlock and that his real father was John Kingsford, but the next morning seemed to have forgotten the whole convesrsation.

Grainger, Charles (The Kingsford Mark)

Foreign Office investigator called in after the shooting of Sir Charles Read.

Great Cotters (The Kingsford Mark)

Farm belonging to the Carters, parents of Ethel Mavis Carter, known as "Birdie". Carlo Graber woos her and plans to marry her.

Hangley Cleave (The Kingsford Mark)

Hill on the Darlock estate.

Mrs. Hurrell (The Kingsford Mark)

Housekeeper to John Kingsford at Darlock House.

Kingsford, Elizabeth (The Kingsford Mark)

Deceased wife of John Kingsford, and mistress of Sir Charles Read. She has just died in a traffic accident before the book begins.

Kingsford, John (The Kingsford Mark)

Owner of Darlock Hall and former member of parliament. He discovers letters showing his dead wife had been the mistress of Sir Charles Read, the Foreign Secretary, so decides to murder him. However, he loses his nerve, and it is Carlo Graber who completes the task for him.

Kingsford, Parson John (The Kingsford Mark)

Great-grandfather of John Kingsford, whose diaries covering the period 1872 to 1880 were written in code and are being transcribed by John Kingsford. They reveal that there is a secret drawer in a piece of furniture, and it is there that Kingsford discovers his wife has hidden letters from her lover. The diaries also reveal in the end that Parson John was himself guilty of causing the death of a local girl.

Kingsford, Very Rev. Robert Hugh (The Kingsford Mark)

Younger brother of John Kingsford and Provost to the Bishop of Avon. It emerges at the end of the book that he is the biological father of Carlo Graber.

Kingsford Run (The Kingsford Mark)

A cross country course of about 20 miles that all male members of the Kingsford family are expected to run, their times being recorded on a board in the house. Carlo trains himself to carry out the run, promising himself that if he beats or equals John Kingsford's time, he will reveal that he is (or thinks he is) John Kingsford's son.

Lindsay, Grace (The Kingsford Mark)

Sister of Carlo Graber's mother, and his guardian until he reaches the age of 18. She stays with him at Darlock House, and is always on the verge of having an affair with John Kingsford.

Pitt Wood House (The Kingsford Mark)

Devonshire estate belonging to Sir Charles Read, the Foreign Secretary, and occupied by his mother. Sir Charles visits regularly, and is shot dead by Carlo Graber during a Christmas visit.

Read, Sir Charles (The Kingsford Mark)

Foreign Secretary, and lover of Elizabeth Kingsford. When, after his wife's death, John Kingsford finds out about the liaison, he sets about planning to kill Sir Charles, but the shooting is in the end carried out by Carlo Graber after Kingsford has held back from pulling the trigger.

Skip (The Kingsford Mark)

Name of John Kingsford's dog, and also the name of Parson John's dog in the diaries.

South Molton (The Kingsford Mark)

Town near Barnstaple, said to be six or eight miles from Darlock House. Carlo meets Birdie first when her scooter has a puncture on the way to South Molton. Canning himself lived in a nearby village at the time of writing.

Thorn, Vera (The Kingsford Mark)

Housemaid at Darlock House. Carlo Graber flirts with her.

Miss Todd (The Kingsford Mark)

Assistant to Grainger and Wardle during the investigation of the murder of Sir Charles Read.

Walther .22 (The Kingsford Mark)

The rifle with which Kingsford tests Carlo's skill at shooting.

Wardle, Mark (The Kingsford Mark)

Home Office investigator called in after the shooting of Sir Charles Read.