 |
Musings | | |
'The Dark Portal
was my very first book. It began as one tiny drawing of an albino runt who became
Oswald Chitter. My desire was to make his world
as convincing and frightening as possible. I wanted the reader to believe in these
characters and fear for them. Before
I even began writing the first chapter, however, I worked out the storylines for
all three books. This meant that I knew precisely who was going to to survive
and who was not! It also enabled me to put in hints of what could happen later.
Many
of the characters (including the rats) were based on friends of mine! |
The Characters The
Mice Albert
Brown
Loving father and devoted husband. Albert is a commonsensical
mouse, not usually given to rash actions. Arthur
Brown
Fat and jolly, Arthur likes a scrap,
but always comes off worse.
Audrey
Brown
Tends
to dream. She likes to look her best and wears lace and ribbons. Audrey cannot
hold her tongue in an argument, and often says more than she should.
Gwen
Brown
Gentle wife of Albert and caring mother
of Arthur and Audrey. Her love for her family binds it together and keeps it strong. Arabel
Chitter
Silly old gossip who gets on the nerves
of everyone in the skirtings. Oswald
Chitter
Arabel's son is an albino runt.
Oswald is very weak and is not allowed to join in some of the rougher games.
Piccadilly
A cheeky young mouse from the city, Piccadilly
has no parents and is very independent.
Thomas
Triton
A retired shipmouse. Thomas is a
heroic old salt - he does not suffer fools gladly.
William
Scuttle or "Twit"
Twit is a fieldmouse visiting his mother's sister Arabel
Chitter. Twit is an "innocent", and does not have a bad word to say
about anyone.
Eldritch
and Orfeo
Are brothers, and as bats see far
into the future. Bat advice is a very dangerous thing to seek, for they tell you
only fragments of what they know. The
Green Mouse
A mysterious figure in mouse mythology.
He is the spirit of Spring, and of new life. The
Rats Madame
Akkikuyu
A black rat from Morocco. She is
a fortune-teller who wanders around selling potions and charms to gullible customers.
Finn
A sly old worker - one of his ears is missing, but
he doesn't miss much. Fletch
A dirty old rat with bad breath and spots on his nose. One-eyed
Jake
A popular rat who is threatening to oust
Morgan from office. Jupiter
The great dark god of the sewers. He lives in the dark
portal and possesses awesome powers. All fear him. Leering
Macky
A rat with a terrible squint. He and Vinegar
Pete are old cronies. Morgan
The Cornish piebald rat who is Jupiter's lieutenant.
Morgan trusts no-one, and does all Jupiter's dirty work. Skinner
A rat with a mousepeeler strapped onto his stump
of an arm. Smiler
A strong giant of a rat who works in the mine. Vinegar
Pete
This rat never smiles. His face is always
sullen and he and Leering Macky mutter to themselves. | 
