Tremarnock – Characters

SPOILERS!!!

These are the characters in this novel:

• Liz (Eliza) Broone is a single mother living in Tremarnock. She comes from London originally, but Greg, her partner, left her because he couldn’t face up to the fact that Rosie, their daughter, was diagnosed cerebral palsy. Liz has been living in Tremarnock for seven years, and she struggles financially, working two jobs at the same time. In the morning she has a cleaning job in Plymouth, and in the evening she works in a restaurant. Things deteriorate for her when Rosie is diagnosed a brain tumour, and Liz fights to save her daughter’s life, and raise money for the best treatment. Liz used to think he had a friend in Iris, the newsagent woman who sold her a lottery ticket every week. Iris tricked her of her winnings when Liz’es ticket lottery was a winner. Iris fell out of her spectrum because she was scared of being found out, and when Liz needed the money for Rosie, she went to see her, and it was then that she discovered that Iris had played a dirty trick. Iris eventually gave her the rest of the money left after all the family had squandered the money. At the end of the book, Liz is happy as she and Robert, the owner of the restaurant where she worked, got together, and Rosie had her treatment and seemed to be on the mend. Robert and Liz plan to get married and buy a cottage near where Liz’s was.
• Rosie Broone is Liz’s ten-year-old daughter. Rosie is cheerful, intelligent and very sensitive. Since she had cerebral palsy, she has a pronounced limp and one of her arms doesn’t work for her. For this reason she is bullied by one of her classmates Kyle. Then she is diagnosed a brain tumour, and she is very brave about it. When her mother gets the money for her treatment, she is finally recovered. She is also happy about Robert becoming her mother’s partner and future husband. At the end of the book Rosie is about to turn 12.
• Robert is the man who Liz ends up with. Robert owns the restaurant where Liz has worked for some time, and he is awkward and shy. Little by little Liz and Robert become closer. Just before Rosie is diagnosed with a brain tumour, they go out together, and he kisses her. Yet, when Rosie gets sick, Liz just disregards the whole thing. Robert, though, proves to her how much he likes her by doing a parachute jump to raise money for Rosie even though he is scared of heights. And when she is in America, he calls every day. In the end, they get together, and at the end of the book they are living together and plan to get married.
• Greg Wilder is Rosie’s father, but he hasn’t cared for his daughter since she was a baby. Greg has a new partner now, Louise, and a baby daughter. When Rosie gets sick, he sends some money, but he never tries to see her.
• Pat is Liz’s neighbour and she looks after Rosie every night when Liz is at the restaurant. Rosie calls her nan.
• Iris is the 45-year-old newsagent who Liz is friends with. Yet, the woman betrays her when she keeps the winning lottery ticket which actually belongs to Liz. Iris moves from Plymouth and gets herself a house and her family starts squandering the money. Things go awry when her children and husband go off the rails. Her son falls with a bad crowd, her daughter starts seeing an abuser, and her husband is drunk all the time and even going with other women.
• Jim is Iris’s husband.
• Christie is Iris’s daughter. She has a child. When her mother wins the lottery, she starts seeing a man who beats her, and when her mother shows her disapproval, they fall out. When Liz runs into her at the end of the book, it seems Christie has left her boyfriend and misses her mother.
• Spencer is Christie’s baby boy. Rosie plays with him when she and her mother go to spend Easter Sunday with the family, and then when she goes with them to Tintagel.
• Darren is Iris’s son, and he falls with a bad lot when his mother wins the lottery.
• Kelly was Darren’s girlfriend. We don’t know if she is still with him after the lottery affair.
• Hannah is a woman working as an accountant in the offices that Liz cleans. Liz meets her when she finds Hannah sleeping under her desk. Hannah is beautiful and very elegant, and she and Liz become great friends.
• Kasya is Liz’s boss in the cleaning job she has. Kasya is Polish and speaks very fast, so Liz often has problems understanding her. Kasya is also kindhearted even though she is often pushy and overbearing.
• Loveday is Robert’s seventeen-year-old niece and works in the restaurant with Liz. Loveday is flirtatious and goes out with a man every week or every few weeks. She finally settles for Jesse, who also works for Robert in the kitchen.
• Jesse works for Robert in the kitchen. He and Loveday dated for some time but they fell out. Yet, at the end of the book they are back together.
• Jean is Rosie’s childminder. Ever morning when Liz goes to work, she leaves Rosie with Jean.
• Tom is Jean’s husband.
• Paul Broone is Liz’s father. After Liz’s mother died, he was too sad, and then he met Tonya and remarried. Liz was happy for his father, but Tonya became a force that changed everything. Liz had to leave her room for Tonya’s daughter, and then after university she had to find herself a place of her own. Paul doesn’t visit Liz and Rosie a lot, and Liz misses him. At the end of the book Robert goes to see him and explain to him that Liz and Rosie miss him, so for the first time he stands up to Tonya and tells her that he is going to spend Christmas with his daughter and granddaughter.
• Tonya Broone is Liz’s stepmother, and she has too large an influence on her father, and that is the reason why Paul, Liz’s father doesn’t visit too often.
• Rick Kane is one of the neighbours in Tremarnock that Liz is friendly with.
• Esme is Liz’s neighbour.
• Kyle is the boy in Rosie’s school who mocks her for her disability.
• Nathan is the postman. He is very attractive and muscular. Loveday dates him for a while, but she also leaves him.
• Alex is the cook who works for Robert.
• Josh also works for Robert in the restaurant kitchen.
• Tony Cutt also lives in Tremarnock and is good friends with Liz. He is gay.
• Felipe is Tony’s boyfriend.
• Sam is the woman Liz meets in America when Rosie has her treatment. Sam is from Birmingham, and she and Liz become friends.
• Dotty is Sam’s daughter, and she also had treatment for cancer in America like Rosie.