The Supporting Cast

This is one of the big issues that all writers have to confront. How many members of the supporting cast should there be? This is a problem even in a shortish novel of 100,000 words. Too few characters, and a novel can feel introverted and introspective -- even self-indulgent or sterile. Too many, and there is a danger of a narrative becoming superficial and confusing. Somewhere in the middle is the place to be-- unless you are trying do do something rather risky or think of yourself as a writer of "literary fiction", inhabiting a place which is unoccupied by those who write unliterary and hence "inferior" fiction.

We all know that this problem -- is it a problem? -- is exacerbated in a literary saga of multiple volumes or in a long-running TV series. Thinking of the latter, "Game of Thrones" is famous for having vast numbers of important characters, who get killed off with alarming frequency and apparently no regrets. That's the business model. "Outlander" goes rambling on, with too many characters and too many locations. "Downton Abbey" was in my view beautifully written and cleverly structured, as a good soap opera should be. There were scores of important characters over several series, many of whom the viewer grew to love, and who had fully developed back stories which cleverly intersected. They were killed off too, but not at an alarming rate. That's life -- people die every now and then. Some were bad, and some were good, but I liked the way that even the baddies had interesting back stories which -- eventually -- the viewer was allowed to share. So initial negative responses to the behaviour of certain disruptive characters were slowly manipulated by the screenwriters, the director and the cast into something more akin to empathy and sympathy. There were few real baddies in the series -- and that is why, I suspect, it struck such a chord across the globe. OK -- it glorified an upper-crust paternalistic way of life that is long gone -- but it was somehow life-enhancing in that it stressed the triumph of virtue over evil and the importance of loyalty and compassion (and mutual support mechanisms) within one small community in one small place. People can relate to that, whatever their own personal circumstances may be.

In the eight volumes of the Angel Mountain saga, there are probably around 50 important characters who make multiple appearances and whose personal stories intersect and who are either friends or enemies of Mistress Martha Morgan. Then there are more than 200 other characters, who drift in and out of the stories and for whom I had to create personal histories. That involved keeping a very accurate character list, with dates of birth and death, family relationships, places of residence, and key life events. During the full narrative I mostly got things right (people in the right places at the right times, and doing things that were "in character"). What I had not reckoned with when I embarked on the series was that there would be people who seem to do not much else, other than read the full series (all million words of it) from beginning to end.over and again. Inevitably, they know the books far better than I do -- and THEY HAVE DISCOVERED MISTAKES! Shock, horror! Not really -- it's rather entertaining. Somebody pointed out to me that some character or other lived in farm X in one volume and in farm Y in another, and that one character was beautiful and black-haired in one book and plain and blonde in another. Well, nobody's perfect........

But I have derived great pleasure from giving life to the 50 or so characters whose characters, opinions and actions give depth to the stories, influencing Martha Morgan in a multitude of different ways. I had to work hard, in their portrayals, to make them all slightly eccentric, to the point of making them interesting, but not pushing their portrayals over the boundary into the realm of caricature. Here are two short portraits of two of them -- the prostitute Patty Ellis and the self-made man and rough diamond called Wilmot Gwynne:

Patty Ellis

Patty Ellis appears for the first time in House of Angels, and becomes a key character in the stories from that point to on. Although she is a prostitute when Martha first meets her, the two women are immediately drawn into a close and affectionate relationship. It would have been socially quite unacceptable for the mistress of an estate in the early 19th century to have been seen in the presence of a prostitute, but it is one of Martha’s great strengths that she cares nothing for wagging tongues and disapproving looks and soon after they meet she even flaunts her friendship with Patty. Initially the relationship might seem to be a very one-sided one, but there are in fact great mutual benefits in it. Early on, Patty offers to help Martha because she has information which is of use to her, and she has no thought at all that she might be repaid in some way. But as the friendship blossoms, Martha realizes that Patty has suffered appallingly at the hands of the evil Joseph Rice, and she also comes to appreciate that Patty is a very strong young woman, with an instinct for survival.

So together the two women plot to achieve the downfall of Rice and his companions, and after that is achieved Martha and Patty develop a much more comfortable friendship. That friendship also has a business side to it, for as Martha gets older she comes to value greatly her contacts among the most disreputable elements of local society. She often needs information, and Patty often knows where it can be obtained. And as a sign of her affection - and indeed respect - for Patty, she helps her in a number of ways, including the setting up of the church wedding, when Patty and Jake Nicholas decide that they wish to be married.

Patty is of course very beautiful, and it is not surprising perhaps that Jake, who was originally a client, should fall madly in love with her and should then decide to make her a respectable woman. Their wedding is quite a bizarre, and Martha loves every minute of it and the celebrations which follow. Later on, as Jake expands his little fishing business and eventually moves into trading activities, Patty does indeed become a notable member of the Parrog community and raises a family of two boys and two girls.

I had a lot of fun developing the story of Patty and Jake through the Saga, telling the reader about her initial fall from grace, about her steely determination to defeat her tormentor, and about her subsequent rehabilitation. She is a strong character and a steadfast friend to Martha, and all good stories need characters like her.

Actually this is a cartoon of George IV, or some such fellow. Wilmot might have had a similar girth, but a much jollier face......

Wilmot Gwynne

Wilmot Gwynne breezes into the story in 1845, and plays quite a prominent part in Flying with Angels during the last ten years of Martha’s life. In some ways he is a comic or a buffoon, and indeed he is part of the comedy duo of Wilmot and Delilah; but he is also much more than that, for as the story develops he shows that he is a multi-faceted character. He is a rough sort of fellow, with very few airs and graces, who has made his fortune in the Swansea Valley through hard work and good judgement. He is a nouveau riche entrepreneur who moves into rural Wales for health reasons, and maybe also because he fancies the idea of being a squire rather more than being an industrialist. But he is generous to fault, and when he takes over the Plas he shows great sensitivity in allowing Martha to remain in the house she loves and to maintain her status in the community. He could have sent her packing, and in the process destroyed her life and her family; but he chooses not to do that, maybe because like most of the other men in the Saga he is more than a little in love with Martha. As the final chapter in Martha’s life unfolds, and moves inexorably towards its tragic conclusion, Wilmot again proves to be a steadfast friend to Martha, Amos and the Morgan family.

What does Master Gwynne expect as payback, after the provision of so much moral and financial support? Possibly some enhanced status in the community, which is what he needs in order to establish himself as a respectable squire. Maybe he is also seeking to demonstrate to his family and acquaintances that he has that almost indefinable quality called sensibility. That too, above all else, is what marks a member of the gentry out to from the mass of the population - and it is assumed very often in the literature of the day that sensibility comes only with good breeding, and cannot simply be acquired by those of low breeding who suddenly become rich.

Part of my purpose in developing Wilmot as an important character in the last story of the Saga was to demonstrate that, of all the members of the gentry who hobble or stamp across the pages of Martha’s diary, Wilmot is one of very few who can truly be referred to as noble man. The others are Lord Cawdor, Richard Fenton, and John Bowen of Llwyngwair. Wilmot Gwynne, with his portly frame, calloused hands, and rough way of speaking, has every right to to sit at the same table as those famous characters from Pembrokeshire history.

(This short article first appeared on Linkedin)