Edith "Edie" Burchill
The narrator and link between the past and present events of the story. She is editor and Vice-Chairman at Billing & Brown Book Publishers. She doesn’t have many friends, with her boss Herbert Billing being her closest friend. At the beginning of the story, she has recently split from her partner Jamie, her first and only serious relationship. She is not particularly close with her mother and was always a daydreamer, which annoyed her more serious mother. Ever since she was a child, her favorite book was The True History of the Mud Man, written by famous author Raymond Blythe. This, along with her mother’s connection to Milderhurst Castle, is what draws her into the lives of the Blythe sisters and the mystery surrounding them.
Juniper "June" Blythe
The youngest of the Blythe sisters, she is described as being “beautiful in an odd way” with “long hair, big eyes” and “rather wild looking”. Juniper has long blonde hair and a gap between her front teeth. She was born with a health condition that causes her to black out sometimes and lose her memory. A fanciful and bright child, she has an aptitude for artistic pursuits, especially writing. She is a prolific writer, yet doesn’t care if anyone ever reads her compositions, doing it merely for the pleasure of writing rather than any desire for notoriety. Her father, Raymond, a famous author himself, deeply encourages her writing and she is educated at home at her father’s insistence. This, along with her enigmatic personality causes the locals in their small town to gossip about her.
Her father’s rules keep her deeply sheltered, instilling a belief that to get married and have children would interfere with her art. He keeps her overly protected within the walls of the castle in an attempt to nurture her talent and because of this, she feels a sense of liberation after he dies.
While she is a lone-spirited teenager in 1939, the Blythes take in Meredith as an evacuee and Juniper and her develop a close friendship which is a new experience for both girls. She begins to become interested in the outside world beyond the castle and cherishes stories Meredith tells her of life in London. Shortly after her father’s death, she flees her sheltered existence at Milderhurst and makes her way to London for an extended period of time where she falls deeply in love with Tom. She is 17 in 1941 when a traumatic incident happens at Milderhurst Castle and she is never the same after and suffers from ill mental health. From then on, she relives that same October night where she waits for her lover Tom to come to the castle. When Edie comes into her life years later in 1992, she still believes it is wartime England and that same October night in 1941.
Persephone "Percy" Blythe
The older Blythe twin and oldest of the Blythe sisters. She is described as being tall and thin, with an “egg-shaped face” that is “alert and intelligent”. Like her sisters, she is pretty in her youth, with long blond hair that she eventually cuts short in an act of defiance against her strict father. She is bossy and controlling, formidable, deeply traditional, and often referred to as being pragmatic. During WWII she serves in the Ambulance Service in Folkestone. On the surface, she appears to look down upon intermingling of the classes, but it is later shown that her apparent dislike of the housekeeper comes from heartbreak.
Like her father, she is passionately dedicated to the upkeep of the castle and its history, including the Blythe family history. She loves Milderhurst Castle and despises change. Unlike her father however, she would never doing anything to harm her sisters and is more selfless. She is fiercely protective of both Saffy and Juniper and although she once cherished her father, she resents the damage he has caused their family. Eventually, she unburdens herself onto Edie, explaining the events of the past that shaped the Blythe sisters’ lives.
Seraphina “Saffy” Blythe
The younger of the Blythe twins. She is tall like her twin, and even though they are identical, she is described as looking sweeter than Percy because of her softer personality. Saffy is the gentler twin and extremely caring of those around her. Physically, she is described as having long blonde hair like her sisters, but more golden in hue. She believes herself to be the weaker twin because she is more docile while Percy is dominant.
Unlike her sister, she enjoys the city and once wished to leave Milderhurst Castle for a life in London. Her plans to leave were thwarted after the incident during the war that leaves Juniper an invalid and she stays behind to help Percy care for their sister. Later, it is revealed that her issues with leaving the castle stem from even earlier when she was a child and witnessed a terrible event. Seeing the death of her mother’s lover Oliver Sykes as he tries to pull himself out of the castle moat below their window causes Saffy to a recurring nightmare, which eventually inspires her father’s most famous book about a Mud Man. Her fears, stemming from that night, cause her to experience deep panic when she is away from her perceived safety of the castle.
As a young woman, she was engaged to be married to Matthew de Courcy but he broke off their engagement because of her inability to leave the castle behind. She is devastated by this and laments her opportunity to have been a mother and leave the castle for good.
Raymond Blythe
Father of the Blythe sisters and famous author of The True History of the Mud Man. He is described as being stuck up and distrustful of outsiders, and valuing intelligence over status and money. Born at Milderhurst Castle in the summer of 1866, he was the first child of Robert and Athena Blythe. His younger brother, Timothy died during a violent storm in 1876 and his mother never recovered emotionally, eventually taking her life by leaping from the tower at Milderhurst. Raymond graduated Oxford in 1887 and moved to London where he worked as a writer. He married Muriel Palmerston in 1895 and inherited the castle after his father’s death in 1898. He and Muriel moved there and in January 1906, Muriel gives birth to Percy and Saffy after a difficult pregnancy. When she dies a few years later, he is plunged into a deep depression and doesn’t write much until 1917 when he publishes his most famous work the Mud Man, which is viewed as an instant classic and an allegory for the Great War. He remarried in 1919 to Odette, which causes a scandal because at the time he is over fifty and she is only eighteen.
He was wounded at Flanders in 1916 during WWI and invalided home to the castle. Later, it is revealed that his daughter Saffy’s nightmares are what inspired the writing of the Mud Man during his time home after the war. Before his wife’s death and the war, he had shown a love and tenderness for his daughters that was uncommon in men of that time period. Yet after his wife’s death, he is haunted by guilt and later still by his daughter’s nightmares and their origin. His later years are marked by emotional instability and a feeling of needing to atone for his mistakes decades earlier. He also begins to show favoritism for his youngest daughter Juniper, who inherits a gift for writing. His need for control over the fate of the castle and desire to nurture Juniper’s talent causes him to create a damaging and repressive environment for his daughters that affects them for the rest of their long lives. He dies in April 1941 after a fall from the same Milderhurst tower his mother fell from 65 years earlier.
Meredith Baker
Edie’s mom. She is a young teenager when she is sent away from London as an evacuee during the bombing in WWII and separated from her siblings Rita and Ed, each going to different homes. Described in the present tense by her daughter as sensible and pragmatic, she was actually an imaginative and sensitive child. She experiences a difficult period in life when she loses her son Daniel and because of her grief, has a somewhat strained relationship with her daughter Edie.
She had always felt out of place growing up in her own family, not close with her siblings or parents and feeling lonely. As a teenager, she is described as bookish, observant, and shy. Although she is frightened at first to be sent away from home, she ends up loving her time at the castle with the Blythe sisters and develops a close, sisterly relationship with Juniper. Around this time, she has a crush on her teacher, Thomas Cavill and doesn’t realize that he and Juniper are in love. Through a miscommunication, she ends up feeling forgotten and saddened by her loss of contact with the Blythe sisters after the war. Years later, after Edie uncovers the mysteries of the past, Meredith renews her interest in writing and creative pursuits, appearing much happier and freer.
Thomas Cavill
Edie’s teacher in the late 1930s, he is described as being eager to join the war in order to better himself. At twenty-five, he believes the war will give him a better depth of understanding, both as a man and as a teacher and poet. He is injured at Dunkirk and evacuated. Back at home in London, he suffers from shell shock until he is reintroduced to Juniper and they begin an intense love affair. He desperately wants to marry Juniper and eventually she accepts his proposal, despite knowing what it will mean for her sisters and the castle. He dies in an unfortunate accident while going to visit at the castle and he is presumed to have deserted the army until his death is revealed in 1992 by Percy.
Lucy Middleton Rogers
Housekeeper at Milderhurst Castle since she was 16, from 1917 to 1941.Her beloved brother Michael had asked her to take care of their mother should anything happen to him in the First World War, so that when he died at war, she took it upon herself to devote her life to taking care of their mother. Her and Persephone were in love but because of the time they lived in, could never be together romantically. Early in the Second World War, she marries Harry Rogers as a last chance to have a family. Despite not being in love with him, she is able to leave the castle and have a baby at a later age in life, long after she had given up hope of having a family. It is easier for her to be away from the castle because it gives her distance from Percy, her true love.
Harry Rogers
The clock man employed by the Blythes at Milderhurst Castle. He is described as a “plain little man” and the village is surprised when Lucy marries him later in life.
Marilyn Bird
She runs the farmhouse inn that Edie stays at in Milderhurst. She is the daughter of the former Blythe housekeeper, Lucy and her husband Harry.
Muriel Palmerston Blythe
First wife of Raymond and described as ‘the most handsome of all the year’s debutantes’ when she marries him in 1895. After years of trying to start a family, she eventually gives birth to twin daughters. She is depressed after her difficult labour with the twins and when she recovers, finds that her children have grown much closer to their father and she feels lonely. Eventually, she ends up having an affair with Oliver Sykes, an architect tasked with updating the castle and gardens. In 1910, when Raymond drunkenly discovers their affair, he sets in motion a terrible accident in which Muriel dies in fire that consumes the east turret of the castle and the family library. The fire also leads to Oliver’s death and is the origin for Saffy’s debilitating Mud Man nightmare.
Odette Silverman Blythe
Second wife to Raymond and mother of Juniper. She dies in 1924 from complications during her second pregnancy.
Cousin Emily
A favorite cousin of the Blythe twins when they were growing up, she spent the summers at the castle until 1925 when there is a falling out. Later it is revealed that she never returns to the castle because she married Matthew de Courcy, Saffy’s former fiance after their engagement is ended.
Aunty Rita
Meredith’s sister and Edie’s aunt. A hairdresser with a salon for the past 50 years. She and her sister were never close, as they are very different in character. She helps Edie to begin uncovering her mother’s past by giver her Meredith’s old letters home from her time as an evacuee.
Herbert Billing
Edie’s boss. He is the co-founder of Billing & Brown Book Publishers with his late business and romantic partner, Michael Brown. Edie looks after him when Michael dies and they work together closely trying to build up the company. He is a supportive friend to Edie and helps her through her break up with Jamie.
Theo Cavill
Tom’s brother who has spent decades hoping to find out what happened to him in 1941.
Arthur Tyrell
A mailman responsible for an undelivered letter from Juniper in 1941 that isn’t discovered until 1992 and finally sent to Meredith, setting the plot in motion.
