Sam the Sudden

Spike Murphy — a champion high-kicker.

Samuel Pynsent Shotter ("Sam the Sudden") — an old Wrykynian, also an orphan.

John B Pynsent — his maternal uncle;  an American millionaire, founder and owner of the John B Pynsent Import and Export Company.

Mr Ellaby — considers Sam's work to be a disgrace to the firm.

Clarence "Hash" Todhunter — cook on the tramp steamer Araminta.

Anthony Shotter — Sam's deceased father, an Englishman.

Matthew Wrenn — editor of Pyke's Home Companion and owner of San Rafael, a semi-detached residence in Valley Fields.

Kay Derrick — his orphaned niece; nbsp; lives with Matthew Wrenn when not working as secretary / companion to . . .

Mrs Winnington-Bates, of Thurloe Square, South Kensington.

Claude Winnington-Bates — her son, an old Wrykynian, also a worm.

Tresidder — his friend, another old Wrykynian.

Colonel Derrick — Kay's deceased father, late of Midways Hall, Wilts.

J Willoughby Braddock — Kay's childhood friend, he shared a study with Sam at Wrykyn School.

Aunt Julia — his aunt, "an unattached female".

Sleddon — his butler.

Mrs Martha Lippett — formerly Willoughby's nanny, now his housekeeper and a millstone round his neck.

Claire Lippett — her daughter;   Matthew Wrenn's cook / housemaid.

Evans — a cabman and, to his credit, not an old Wrykynian.

Mr Cornelius — of the Valley Fields firm of Matters & Cornelius, House Agents;   an amateur historian.

Lord Tilbury (formerly George Pyke) — owner of the Mammoth Publishing Corporation and Sam's employer in London.

Mrs Frances Hammond — his sister

Cordelia Blair — author of "Hearts Aflame", the current serial in Pyke's Home Companion.

Alexander "Chimp" Twist (alias J Sheringham Adair) — petty criminal, owner and sole employee of the Tilbury Detective Agency, "large and efficient staff".

Dora ("Fainting Dolly") Molloy (née Gunn) — an accomplished pick-pocket and shop-lifter, recently married to . . .

"Soapy" Molloy — an American confidence trickster and sometime business partner of Chimp Twist.

Edward Finglass — bank robber, former occupant of Mon Repos and friend of Chimp Twist and Soapy Molloy;   has recently died in Buenos Aires.

Thomas G Gunn — the alias adopted by Soapy Molloy, after Dolly had rejected his first choice, J Felkin Haggenbakker.

Amy — a large and friendly canine cocktail, formerly something of a popular pet at the Blue Anchor public-house in Tulse Hill.

A kitten that has sought refuge up an elm tree.

Louise G Boffin — author of "Celia's Airman", a short story soon to appear in Pyke's Home Companion.

George Turner — a cousin of Hash Todhunter's, he broke two ribs while "pruning the ellums on a gentleman's place down Chigwell way".

Percy Pilbeam — a "human ferret";  editor of Society Spice, a Mammoth publication

A policeman who is selling tickets for a concert in aid of a charitibulorganisation.

Rev Aubrey Jerningham — newly-arrived vicar in Valley Fields;  author of "Is there a Hell?"

Mr Walkinshaw, of Balmoral, Acacia Road — his dog, failing to recognise him in a new suit, chased him on to the roof of the summer-house.

Mr Edwin Phillimore, occupant of the Firs, at the corner of Buller Street and Myrtle Avenue, was bitten by a guinea-pig.

Mrs Bellamy-North, of Beau Rivage, Burberry Road, hosted a garden party at which Edward Finglass appeared and spoke a few words.

Dwight Blenkiron, of Chicago, Illinois, who came into about twenty million dollars when his father died, married Genevieve Poskitt, who had about double that in her own right.