Sam Vimes, Discworld, Terry Pratchett
I have blogged many times in the past about my love of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series, but my favourite of all the wonderful characters Pratchett created is the commander of Ankh Morpork's Night Watch.
Sam Vimes is everything a police officer should be: always on the side of what is morally right and able to withstand pressure from politicians when needed. He has always been one of my favourite characters, but it was Night Watch and Thud which really made me fall in love with him. In the former book, his backstory explains how he becomes the man he is and show how easy it would have been for him to go in a different direction. In the latter, he is a man with a difficult job to do, but he is always determined to get home to read to his son, Young Sam. However, he recognises that life is not the way the picture books present it and so in the spin-off Where's My Cow he changes the words to reflect the world that Young Sam will grow up in and it's utterly charming.
Sam doesn't care about the background of his officers, he judges them on their capabilities alone and defends them from people who don't do the same. He is loyal to the people he cares about and truly understands the city he polices. However, my favourite quote of his is a more philosophical one and the reason I love it is because it is so true that unless you have been poor, it's one you can't fully understand. This is discussed in more detail here.
"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."
Men at Arms
2. Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Anne Shirley is another character I have blogged copiously about. The influence this character has had on me is immeasurable, from my ongoing obsession with red hair (sorry, Anne!) to my love of writing and my desire to find a Gilbert of my own. I can't think of another series that causes me to cry quite as much as this one does and yet I always come back to it. I am at a loss to explain why I felt so connected to this fictional orphan whose life couldn't have been more different to my own, but there is something about her that makes everyone love her. She hopelessly over-dramatic and it annoys me that she took so long to realise that Gilbert was the love of her life, but there are certain moments that make me catch my breath every time I read them - when she finds out that Gilbert will recover from his illness, when she thinks she is going to lose him to Christine and defiantly wears the little pink enamel heart and of course, the events of the final book of the series when her boys are fighting overseas. There is often an Anne reference somewhere hidden in my own books e.g. Tom's surname in Unforgettable and Frankie's red hair in The Mermaid, just so I can pay a tiny tribute to the girl who made me want to write.
3. Phryne Fisher, Miss Fisher series, Kerry Greenwood
Phryne is another character I've blogged about before. She has everything - money, looks, a fashionable figure and a beautiful house with servants. She could easily be spoilt by all of this, but she isn't. She remembers her impoverished childhood and understands that everything she has is material and what really counts are the people in her life. She will move heaven and earth to ensure they are safe and this desire to help and protect is extended to those who come to her looking for help.
It's very difficult sometimes to separate Book Phryne and TV Phryne, particularly as Book Phryne gets older. In the TV series the chemistry between Essie Davis (Phryne) and Nathan Page (DI Jack Robinson) is sizzling and drives many of the episodes. However, in the books, Jack is a happily married man and Phryne's main love interest is Lin Chung. Nevertheless, Phryne's character remains essentially the same in whichever medium she is viewed. She doesn't worry too much about the law where it clashes with her own personal moral code (particularly where affairs of the heart are concerned) but as I always seem to be in agreement with her about the right course of action to take, this has rarely bothered me. I also love that she doesn't care what society thinks, whether it is concerning the unusual nature of her arrangement with Lin and his wife, Camellia, or what role it expects women to play within it - Phryne encourages her wards Jane and Ruth to pursue their dreams regardless of what is 'expected', or about the mixing of races, religions or classes. She is supremely confident in her appearance and abilities and never loses sight of that no matter what happens. She is the woman I wish I could be.
4. Alec Scudder, Maurice, E.M Forster
Having grown up under Section 28 and in a very conservative household, the first time I read Maurice as a youngish teenager, it felt as though I was reading something illicit, so although I enjoyed it, I don't think I fully appreciated the beauty of it as a piece of literature and I enjoyed the film version more because it had Rupert Graves and Hugh Grant in it (James Wilby is an excellent actor, but I can never get over my hatred of Clifford Chatterly). Recently, I re-read the book and realised anew what an amazing story it was. At the time it was set, homosexuality was obviously illegal and yet Alec is brave enough to answer Maurice's call in the middle of the night. When Maurice rejects him, he instinctively understands why and fights against it, trying anything to get Maurice's attention and ultimately, he is brave enough to stand his ground and return to be with Maurice. I don't think the courage that took can be underestimated. I love that they get a happy ending, but more importantly I think, the book shows that happy endings don't just come along, they have to be worked for. E.M. Forster wasn't sure publication was worth the furore that would inevitably ensue and Maurice isn't considered one of his best work. However, I much prefer to it to Howards End for all that the latter receives more plaudits.
5. Empress, Empress and Aniya, Candice Carty-Williams
To an extent, it's impossible to separate these two characters because of the body-switching, so I'm going to talk about them together before focusing on Empress. I am not the target audience for this books - my YA eligible days are long behind me - but it's one of those books that adults can definitely enjoy as well, just from a slightly different perspective. I think the beauty of this story is that although the trope is a familiar one, this gives a very fresh take on it. Usually, it's an age or gender swap, but here it is two girls on either side of the class divide who learn more about each other's lives as a result of the mix up. The acceptance of life being what it is, gives way to an ambition for something more, an idea that perhaps Empress is capable of more. For Aniya, it's about seeing how privileged her life is and how much Empress manages to do in spite of her home life. Equally, the character of Empress' mother is more than just an archetypal villain: she is a real person with worries and troubles of her own. Her situation is not entirely of her own making and by the end of the book she is making strides towards improving her lot. Similarly, Empress doesn't reject her roots outright when she moves away from them. Empress is someone who in real life would likely fall through the cracks in the system and the book just goes to show what can happen if someone like her is given a real opportunity to fulfil her potential. She is fiercely proud and a fighter and I loved her and thankfully in the world of fiction, she gets the chance she deserves.
Comments