Victor Canning: characters, themes and locations

Aboler, Gustav (The Scorpio Letters).

Swiss financier who employed John Berney after the war and who kept his letters which are now being used to blackmail Berney.

Amazon Aspect (The Scorpio Letters).

Title of one of George Constantine's books.

Ayr Academy (The Scorpio Letters).

Old school of Sir Alexander Synat.

Bardi, Antonio (The Scorpio Letters).

The villain of the book. Has changed his name from Longo. Signs the blackmailing letters as Scorpio.

Barnes, Jane (The Scorpio Letters).

Waitress at Morelli's Restaurant in Brighton. She has Professor Dean's baby but marries a local motor mechanic, but the fact is used to blackmail the professor after he marries Lucy.

Bern (The Scorpio Letters).

City in Switzerland. Synat's private detective Wheeler was murdered on the Paris-Bern express near Troyes.

Berney, John Hope (The Scorpio Letters).

Government minister and blackmail victim. "There was no mistaking the voice, manly, ringing with the distant echo of Wales, a voice—George remembered—which some political commentator during the Suez crisis had called, ‘the voice that breathed o’er Eden’." This sounds very like a reference to a known political figure.

Bianeri (The Scorpio Letters).

Fettoni is carrying a membership card for the Bianeri when he is knocked down, and much of the plot concerns the effort to find out what it is. It turns out to derive from bianco e neri, black and white, and was a league of French and Italian waiters who in the war spied on the Germans. After the war some of them have continued to use their skills for blackmail.

Bosschaert, Ambrosius (1573-1621) (The Scorpio Letters).

Bardi has a "very good copy of the Bosschaert painting of irises, tulips and roses from the Mauritshuis " in his study, evidence presumably of good taste and wealth. The Mauritshuis is the main art gallery of The Hague in the Netherlands.

Brighton (The Scorpio Letters).

Where Professor Dean began his affair with Jane Barnes at Morelli's Restaurant.

Constantine, George (The Scorpio Letters).

Hero of the story. He has been brought up by Profesor Dean and his wife. He is a travel writer and broadcaster, author of Amazon Aspect.

Curzon Street (The Scorpio Letters).

London address of uir Alexander Synat.

Daily Mail (The Scorpio Letters).

Paper that Luigi Fettoni reads.

Daily Telegraph (The Scorpio Letters).

Bardi reads the airmail edition in his French hideout.

Danielli (The Scorpio Letters).

Hotel in Venicce where Sir Alexander Synat sees Elsie in 1948.

Dean, Lucy (The Scorpio Letters).

Wife of Professor Dean. She has lost a baby and would have been too upset to be told about his illegitimate child, hence his vulnerability to blackmail.

Dean, Professor Ronald (The Scorpio Letters).

Professor of horticulture and blackmail victim.

Eden, The voice that breath'd o'er (The Scorpio Letters).

See Berney

El Drago (The Scorpio Letters).

Vinescu's London restaurant where he meets Sir Alexander Synat.

Farley Hotel (The Scorpio Letters).

Hotel in Tunbridge Wells where Mrs Pinnock lives.

Fentiman Road (The Scorpio Letters).

Fettoni's home in South London, where George and Nicola meet after breaking in. A relatively lower-class area, which leads George and Nicola to think that it cannot be where Scorpio lives, and so Fettoni cannot be Scorpio.

Fettoni, Luigi (The Scorpio Letters).

Courier living in London SW8 who delivers the blackmail letters for Bardi. It is his death in a road accident at the start of the novel that triggers the plot.

Godstow (The Scorpio Letters).

Oxfordshire town, home of Professor Dean and where George Constantine learns of the blackmail letters.

Golf (The Scorpio Letters).

We first meet George Constantine practising mashie shots with a bucket of balls in the orchard of Professor Dean's house.

Horsmonden (The Scorpio Letters).

Village in Kent near Goudhurst. Home of Nadia Temple and Nicola Meade.

Lambeth (The Scorpio Letters).

District of London, location of St. Thomas's Hospital.

Lince (The Scorpio Letters).

Partner in the Lince-Synat building firm, taken on after Synat disengages from Vinescu.

Llangwll (The Scorpio Letters).

Fictional Welsh constituency for which John Berney is the MP.

Lodel (The Scorpio Letters).

Henchman of Antonio Bardi.

Manhurin (The Scorpio Letters).

The gun that Nicola brandishes at George in Fentiman Road is 'a .22 Walther ‘Manhurin’ pistol'

Mauritshuis (The Scorpio Letters).

See Bosschaert

MCC (The Scorpio Letters).

Marylebone Cricket Club. John berney wears an MCC tie.

Meade, Nicola (The Scorpio Letters).

Niece of Nadia Temple and the heroine of the story.

M.G.A. (The Scorpio Letters).

Model of sports car launched in 1955 by the MG company. Nicola is driving a blue M.G.A. when she first meets George.

Milligan (The Scorpio Letters).

Sir Alexander Synat's butler.

Morelli's (The Scorpio Letters).

Restaurant in Brighton where the Professor began his affair with the waitress Jane Barnes.

Moyses Stevens (The Scorpio Letters).

London florists. Sir Alexander Synat's flat has a lot of expensive flower arrangements, leading George to wonder how much his bill at Moyses Stevens was.

Pinnock, Mrs Grace (The Scorpio Letters).

Sister of Vinescu's wife, living in Tunbridge Wells.

Queen's Gate (The Scorpio Letters).

London address of John Berney.

Samuels, Carla (The Scorpio Letters).

Hackney girl who becomes the wife of Vinescu and dies with him in the same bombing raid. Sister of Mrs Grace Pinnock, who inherited her estate.

Scorpio (The Scorpio Letters).

Name that Bardi uses to sign his blackmail letters. We are never given a reason.

St. Thomas's Hospital (The Scorpio Letters).

Where Fettoni was taken after the accident and died. George is able to get an introduction to a registrar at the hospital, which enables him to find Fettoni's address.

St. Tropez (The Scorpio Letters).

Resort in the south of France from which Bardi has been sending the blackmail letters. It is the unburnt cover envelope that gives the first clue to George and Nicola.

Synat, Sir Alexander (The Scorpio Letters).

Businessman and blackmail victim. "... put a peaked cap on this man and he would be a cargo skipper out for blood if he were kept a day over schedule in port, loading. Short, stocky, with black hair brushed hard back, he was wearing city dress—striped trousers, black coat, grey waistcoat with a gold-fob chain and a cravat that had come up perfectly like a meringue. His mouth was pugnacious and there was a fine veining against his hard brown face."

Temple, Nadia (The Scorpio Letters).

Actress and blackmail victim.

Troyes (The Scorpio Letters).

City in north-eastern France where Synat's private detective Wheeler was nmurdered.

Tunbridge Wells (The Scorpio Letters).

Town in Kent, home of Mrs Grace Pinnock

Vauxhall (The Scorpio Letters).

District of London where Fettoni lives.

Vinescu (The Scorpio Letters).

Rumanian restaurant owner who conspires with Sir Alexander Synat. Killed in a wartime bombing in 1943.

Walther (The Scorpio Letters).

See Manhurin

Warre 1927 (The Scorpio Letters).

Vintage port that Professor Dean offers George to celebrate the supposed end of the blackmailer at the start of the story.

Wheeler (The Scorpio Letters).

Private detective that Synat employs, murdered on the Paris-Bern express.

Zaskar (The Scorpio Letters).

Range of Himalayan mountains. George has a colour picture of them on his wall and has presumably been there collecting plants for the Professor.

Conway, George (The Scorpio Letters).

Alias that George Constantine uses when meeting Mrs. Pinnock and when travelling to France.

Pinnock, Elsie (The Scorpio Letters).

Daughter of Grace Pinnock and wife of Longo/Bardi. She performed on stage as Elsie O'Neil as assistant to Ricardo Cadim. Later confined in a sanatorium in Switzerland.

O'Neil, Elsie (The Scorpio Letters).

Elsie Pinnock's stage name.

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