Age Range: 10 (1940); early 30s (1962)

Visual Description: Petite frame with pale, freckled skin; expressive green eyes and chestnut-brown hair worn to the shoulder, often tied with ribbons. Her apron is slightly oversized, frequently dusted with flour or farm soil. In later years, she retains her gentle poise, mature but never hardened, with a softness that lingers in her movements.

Character Description:

A London evacuee with deep emotional intelligence and a compassionate spirit, Mabel arrives at Violet Farm as a frightened ten-year-old, clinging to her mother and unsure of her place. Beneath the uncertainty lies a quiet resilience, a good-natured, sensitive, and inquisitive person who embraces new challenges with sincerity and care. Her deep bond with animals and love of baking soon mark her out as a nurturing presence, and her infamous chocolate cakes lead to a friendship and informal business arrangement with Mr Clift, the local grocer.

A pivotal confrontation with Susan, the vet’s troubled daughter, results in a traumatic fight, leaving Mabel terrified of police repercussions. But her instinct for kindness prevails, and the two girls form a transformative friendship, healing emotional wounds together.

Throughout the story, Mabel becomes the emotional anchor of the farm, her moral compass guiding both children and adults alike. She navigates grief, displacement, and the complexities of wartime with quiet tenacity and warmth. By 1962, she had grown into a resilient, emotionally intelligent mother, passing down rituals of love, remembrance, and healing to her sons, ensuring the legacy of wartime truth lives on not through trauma, but through tenderness.

Age Range: 12 (1940); mid-30s (1958)

Visual Description: Sandy blond hair, hazel eyes, and a sturdy frame built for farm life. His childhood carries the echo of his Aunty Lizzie’s kindness, always smartly dressed, thanks to her care, but with a certain solemnity in his gaze that never quite fades. As an adult, he retains a rugged practicality softened by emotional gentleness.

Character Description:

Orphaned in a bombing raid and raised by his elderly neighbour Lizzie, Roger is sent to Devon dressed in new clothes, but carrying invisible grief. A paperwork error during evacuation mislabels him as “Cooper,” pairing him with Mabel, and sealing a lifelong bond that neither of them could have foreseen.

Bravery becomes Roger’s survival instinct. Quiet and loyal, with a practical mind and gentle spirit, he brings emotional ballast to Violet Farm. From milking cows to shielding Mabel from harm, his gallantry is understated but unwavering. A defining moment comes when his conscience pushes him to search for a missing parachutist, saving the man’s life with a quiet act of heroism that no one else dared to carry out.

Roger’s arc traces the journey from lost child to brother-by-choice, then to husband and father. Lizzie, having no other kin, leaves him a substantial inheritance, but his richest legacy is his chosen family. His relationship with Mabel, anchored in shared trauma, deep trust, and quiet love, blooms into a partnership that spans decades. Together, they raise two sons and continue the rituals of remembering and resilience that wartime taught them.

Age Range: Early 30s (1940)

Mabel's Mother has a warm presence with calloused hands and a gentle voice; hair kept neat under a headscarf, skin weathered by worry but still full of grace. Her apron smells faintly of cooking, always a comforting scent.

Character Description:

Once a school cook, Hilda turned her wartime grief into service, running a kitchen for the homeless after her workplace was destroyed in a bombing raid. She is the kind of mother whose care lingers in memory: practical, intuitive, and deeply loving. Though her role in the narrative is brief, her impact is lasting. Her husband (Mabel’s father) was killed in action; Hilda herself died when a bomb exploded in her garden.

Hilda’s death leaves Mabel unmoored, but her teachings, recipes, and emotional warmth root Mabel throughout the story. She lives on in small rituals: apron strings tied just so, a secret pinch of salt in the batter, a belief that food can heal what war breaks. Her legacy becomes part of Violet Farm’s heartbeat.

Age Range: 74 (1940)

Visual Description: Frail but dignified; adjusts her mink stole with slow precision, her black beret perched just so. Hands bent with arthritis, movements careful but deliberate. Eyes alert beneath pencilled brows, a woman shaped by sorrow, but not undone by it.

Character Description:

A wealthy widow haunted by the death of her only son stationed abroad, Lizzie Perkins lives alone in quiet grief. She suffers from debilitating arthritis and has no surviving family, but she chooses tenderness over retreat. Remembering the kindness of Roger’s late mother, who once helped her with shopping, Lizzie takes the boy in after the bombing raid that orphaned him. She buys him new clothes, packs him a suitcase, and arranges his evacuation to Devon, even though it leaves her utterly alone.

That fateful act binds her to the Cooper family. Roger is paired with Mabel, and Lizzie, too, is folded into their orbit. When her health fails, Mabel’s mother takes her in, and Lizzie finally finds a kind of home, not in blood, but in chosen care. Her presence is dignified, selfless, quietly aching, and she becomes another thread in the tapestry of Violet Farm’s found family.

Tragically, when an unexploded bomb detonates after the raid ends, Lizzie and Hilda Cooper are killed in the collapse of the house. Their deaths cast a long shadow over the story, etched into the soil where grief meets ritual. Lizzie’s act of love becomes a legacy of compassion, one Roger and Mabel carry forward as they build a family of their own.

Age Range: 30 (1940)

Visual Description: Auburn hair tied in a low bun beneath her Red Cross cap; pale blue eyes that rarely betray fatigue, though she carries it. Always in uniform that is crisp, modest, and clean. She carries a satchel full of letters and salves. Graceful, with a backbone of steel.

Character Description:

Mabel’s aunt and Hilda’s younger sister, Rose, is a Red Cross nurse whose life is defined by service and separation. Her husband, Douglas, a mental health specialist, has been taken prisoner at Changi POW Camp, leaving Rose in suspended hope. She’s stationed in Liverpool during the war, tending to civilians and soldiers alike, but remains emotionally tethered to Violet Farm through the letters she sends to Mabel.

Though physically absent for most of the story, Rose’s presence pulses through every envelope. Her notes carry fragments of comfort, humour, and quiet strength, helping Mabel navigate grief and change. Rose’s arc is quieter, grounded in service and loyalty. She symbolises endurance and highlights the way love persists through distance, how family stretches across counties and conflicts, and how the act of writing can anchor the soul.

Age Range: 38 (1940)

Visual Description: Tall and composed, with tired eyes that have seen too much and hands that move with practised tenderness. Wears her nurse’s uniform with quiet pride, apron crisp, shoes worn, hair pinned back in a no-nonsense bun. A coral charm necklace tucked beneath her collar hints at old superstitions and deeper sentiment.

Character Description:

The eldest of the three Cooper sisters, Margaret is a children’s nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she works through the Blitz in underground wards and relocated clinics. Designated a casualty clearing station in 1939, the hospital becomes her second home, and she often works around the clock, tending to injured children with unwavering resolve.

Margaret is the steady hand in the chaos, practical, emotionally grounded, and fiercely protective. She accompanies Mabel to Paddington Station with her sisters, helping guide the evacuation with calm authority. When tragedy strikes and both Hilda and Lizzie are killed in a bombing, it’s Margaret who travels to Devon to deliver the news to Mabel and Roger. Her presence on the farm is brief but vital, offering comfort and continuity in the wake of loss.

With her husband injured in the war and London in ruins, Margaret must return to care for him. When Doris and Albert offer to adopt the children, Margaret sees it not as abandonment, but as salvation, a chance for Mabel and Roger to grow in safety and love. She returns to London to formalise the arrangement with Rose, ensuring the children’s future is secured with dignity and care.

Margaret’s arc is one of quiet sacrifice. She doesn’t seek recognition, but her choices shape the lives of those around her. She is the bridge between past and future, holding the line until others can carry it forward.

Age Range: Mid-to-late 40s

Visual Description: Broad-shouldered, with weather-beaten skin and a lopsided gait from an old shooting accident. Wears corduroy trousers and battered boots with pride. His eyes hold both quiet heartbreak and the kind of steadfast joy that can only be earned through hard work. The smell of tobacco and horses seems to cling to him, no matter how often he washes.

Character Description:

Albert grew up as a gamekeeper’s lad on the estate, learning the rhythms of land and beast from his father. His youth was marked by an accident, an eager boy on a grouse shoot with His Lordship, tripping and shooting himself in the foot. The injury barred him from military service but grounded him to the soil he came from. While others fought abroad, Albert became the steady spine of the farm.

His life changes on two fronts: love and luck. One brings Doris, stern, commanding, and utterly captivating, whom he meets carrying fresh pheasants into the big house kitchen. The other comes from an act of heroism: plunging into an icy lake to save Lady Millicent, His Lordship’s daughter, without hesitation. The reward? A farm of his own, a lifeline, a legacy, a start beyond servitude.

Albert and Doris begin a life together, stitched with both laughter and sorrow. After losing three children of their own, Doris becomes brittle and closed off, but Albert remains patient and full of hope. When Roger and Mabel arrive, he sees not just a chance to help them heal, but perhaps to mend Doris’s own heart. He invites the children into farm life, not as labourers, but as lifeblood. Over time, their joy begins to thaw the frost that grief left on Doris’s brow, and Albert watches this quiet miracle with gratitude.

He is the type of man who speaks with actions, not declarations. A stoic caretaker of land, birds, and souls.

Age Range: Early 40s (at story’s midpoint)

Visual Description: Tall and broad-shouldered, with a sturdy build shaped by a lifetime of labour and grief. Her movements are decisive, often abrupt, and her footsteps are unmistakable, solid, rhythmic, like someone who doesn’t wait to be heard. Thick arms, heavy with strength, usually folded or planted on hips. Her hair is kept tight and her clothes practical, favouring smocks and apron dresses that repel mess but not memories. She smells faintly of carbolic soap and lavender, and her presence fills the room before she speaks a word.

Character Description:

Doris grew up in the warmth and clatter of the big house’s kitchen, her mother teaching her the sacred arts of pastry, patience, and steely resilience. When she married Albert, it was considered a good match, love seasoned with practicality, and a future laid out in furrows and fence posts. But motherhood was unkind to Doris. Two miscarriages, followed by the heartbreaking loss of her baby daughter Dorothy to diphtheria, hardened her into something brittle. She turned inward, telling Albert she’d never try again and declaring that children were best kept at a distance.

Albert convinces her, for the sake of the war effort, to take in evacuees. Doris agrees, but with the detachment of someone preparing for yet another wound. When Mabel and Roger arrive, she’s cold and clipped, assigning them chores without praise and treating them more as impositions than guests. But Albert quietly reminds her: they are hurting, too.

Over time, the children begin to carve space in her life. Their quiet diligence, their resilience. Doris softens, first imperceptibly, then irreversibly. The turning point comes when she falls down the stairs and is laid up and helpless. Mabel steps in with unspoken grace, taking care of cooking, cleaning, shopping, and even tending to the animals. Doris watches, at first in disbelief, then in awe.

The children, once reminders of loss, become symbols of renewal. Doris finds herself reaching out, not with sentimentality, but through small kindnesses: a softer tone, a shared recipe, a moment of rest at the kitchen table. Her transformation is slow, deeply earned, and never declared. She may still bark, but the bite has gone.

Age Range: 50

Visual Description: Always in his white grocer’s coat, “cow gown,” as the locals call it, with pens lined up like medals in his breast pocket. His hair is slicked back with Brylcreem, and his soft, smiling eyes seem to crinkle before his mouth does. Smells faintly of cocoa, pipe smoke, and brown paper bags. His shop is tidy, but never sterile, more like a pantry with a heartbeat.

Character Description:

Mr Clift is the town’s grocer and unofficial morale officer. He’s known for his generosity, his quiet humour, and his uncanny ability to remember everyone’s usual order. Though rationing has made profit scarce, he’s rich in goodwill, often slipping extras to those in need and never turning away a child with an empty tin.

He’s especially fond of Mabel, who delivers eggs to him with quiet diligence. One day, seeing her worry over Doris’s broken leg, he gives her a recipe and a few precious ingredients to make a chocolate cake. The result is so good it lifts Doris’s spirits, and Mr Clift’s eyebrows. Soon, Mabel is baking regularly, and Mr Clift begins selling her cakes in the shop. They become a quiet sensation, a sweet rebellion against wartime austerity.

Mr Clift’s role is subtle but vital. He’s the thread that stitches the community together, through food, kindness, and the belief that small gestures matter. He doesn’t seek credit, but he’s the reason the town still feels like home.

Age Range: Mid-30s

Visual Description: Always in a smart grey suit, incongruously paired with Wellington boots caked in soil. His short blonde hair is styled into a neat quiff, and his sharp blue eyes miss nothing. He moves with precision, speaks sparingly, and carries the air of someone who’s learned to do everything himself. Smells faintly of antiseptic, hay, and the quiet ache of responsibility.

Character Description:

Clive is the town’s vet, trusted, respected, and quietly indispensable. He’s known for his skill with animals and his discretion with people. Since the death of his wife, Clive has raised his autistic daughter, Susan, alone, navigating a world that offers little support and even less understanding. Wartime shortages have stripped away services, leaving Clive to manage Susan’s care with grit and improvisation.

He keeps his life private, not out of pride, but protection. Susan’s needs are complex, and Clive fears judgment more than exhaustion. He rarely accepts help, believing that no one else could understand her rhythms, her silences, her storms. Every day is a balancing act between veterinary rounds and safeguarding Susan’s fragile world.

When Susan meets Mabel, everything shifts. Initially, the encounter is marked by confusion, a fall, and a fight. But when Mabel returns, seeking understanding rather than avoidance, Clive sees something he hadn’t dared hope for, a real connection. He watches, cautiously, as Susan begins to trust Mabel, and Mabel begins to see Susan not as strange, but as singular.

Clive’s relief is profound. For the first time, he can leave Susan without fear. He begins to soften, not dramatically, but in small ways: a longer conversation at the shop, a shared cup of tea with a farmer, a quiet nod to Mr Clift. His world, once confined to mere survival, begins to expand.

Clive’s arc is one of guarded hope. He doesn’t change who he is, but he allows others in. And in doing so, he gives Susan and himself a chance to belong.

Age Range: 50

Visual Description: Tall and muscular, with chiselled features and a neatly trimmed moustache that adds to his air of authority. Always impeccably dressed in a smart suit, often three-piece, with polished shoes and a pocket watch that ticks with precision. His stride is purposeful, his posture military, and his voice clipped but kind. He smells faintly of antiseptic and expensive cologne.

Character Description:

Doctor Tucker is the town’s senior physician and a man who commands attention without raising his voice. He’s posh, stern, and efficient, known for his directness and refusal to sugarcoat. Patients respect him not because he’s warm, but because he’s fair and unfailingly competent. He doesn’t waste time, doesn’t tolerate dithering, and doesn’t believe in unnecessary sentiment, but he does believe in doing what’s right.

He trained in London, serving briefly with the Royal Army Medical Corps, and then returned to civilian practice with a reputation for excellence. His bedside manner is brisk but never cruel. He tells it like it is, and somehow, that honesty becomes its own comfort. Doctor Tucker’s role in the story is as a stabilising force, someone who brings order to chaos and clarity to confusion. He may clash with softer personalities, but he’s never careless.

Age Range: Late 20s to early 30s

Visual Description: Lean, windburned, and deliberate in his movements. First seen dangling in a tree like a fallen scarecrow, his clothes torn and caked in mud. As time passes, he reemerges in overalls, sleeves rolled up, hands blackened with grease. His face is sharp but softens around the edges, and everyone calls him Freddy.

Character Description:

Freddy’s arrival is dramatic and unsettling: shot down, tangled in the woods, and feared. Roger notices him first but struggles to communicate the urgency until Freddy is found suspended like a dark omen. They carry him home, patch him up, and after a tense encounter involving a bread knife and a brave sock-footed Roger, Freddy is tied up and handed over to the MPs.

But something shifts. He’s scared, not cruel. And so, the family keeps its panic quiet. Sergeant Hawkins, impressed by his skills, arranges for Freddy to return as a farmworker. Slowly, "Friedrich" becomes "Freddy," his new name a badge of cautious trust.

Freddy turns out to be an engineer of quiet brilliance. He patches the farm together, fixes what Albert can’t, and when Albert is injured, he becomes the de facto foreman, gentle, precise, and fair. The other POWs look to him, not because he commands but because he listens.

When winter rolls in, Freddy stands beside the other German POWs at the hearth while they sing carols in tender German.

Age Range: Mid-to-late 30s

Visual Description: Tall and striking, with crisp auburn hair and a jawline that looks carved from authority. His uniform is immaculate, boots polished to a whispery shine, but his eyes betray a gentler soul, greenish-grey, quick to soften. He carries himself like a man used to being obeyed, but his smile lands like a well-earned exhale.

Character Description:

Sergeant Hawkins arrives as the law, a Military Policeman with the bearing of a diplomat and the warmth of a pub landlord after hours. He’s well-spoken, unfailingly polite, and effortlessly handsome, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Doris or Mabel (who debate his age over mince pies). While he’s tasked with managing POW affairs, he becomes something of a fixture at Violet Farm, especially after Albert’s accident.

After Albert has been pinned under the trailer, Hawkins moves swiftly and compassionately, arranging for Friedrich, now fondly known as Freddy, and other POWs to assist with the farm’s workload. But he never oversteps. Instead, he’s often found on the porch with a mug of tea or something stronger, depending on the time of day.

There’s the quiet implication he’s seen too much, but he keeps it behind a well-tied tie and a half-smile.

Arc & Function in Story:

Hawkins is the hinge between two worlds: regulation and compassion. He enables Freddy’s return to the farm and, through his gentle diplomacy, allows the family to become something of a sanctuary. His presence during holidays, especially around Christmas, adds both a dash of gallant warmth and historical realism. Many MPs formed familial bonds with the civilians they protected.

By the time the carol singing ends, Hawkins is there, not leading the tune, but raising a toast with Albert's fine whiskey.

Age: 18

Visuals: Skinny as a fencepost, blonde with a mop of unruly hair and a grin that’s far too wide for wartime. His cheeky face is all mischief and sunburn, like he was plucked from a village fête and dropped into a cockpit.

Backstory: Sent to retrieve downed soldiers, but his own plane was shot down. Lands in England like a misplaced schoolboy and carries the guilt lightly, almost as if he’s convinced it was all a misunderstanding.

Presence on the Farm: Quick with a joke, clumsy with tools, beloved by the chickens. Roger likes him instantly.

Age: 28

Visuals: Blonde, broad-shouldered, and composed like a statue carved in dusk light. His face is serious, jaw set, brow rarely relaxed, but his eyes hold a surprising softness, as if he carries gentleness beneath the weight of command.

Backstory: He piloted the aircraft Hans was travelling in, and still feels responsible for the boy’s fate. Doesn’t speak of it often, but watches Hans like a brother.

Presence on the Farm: A natural leader who rarely raises his voice. Strength matched by precision, he lifts what others can’t and fixes what others won’t. Doris trusts him implicitly.

Age: Early 40s

Visuals: Tall and composed, with the grace of a man accustomed to libraries and supper parties. His face radiates kindness, high forehead, thoughtful eyes, and a soft, intelligent expression. Even in overalls, he looks like he ironed them.

Backstory: Held captive since the war’s outbreak, he rarely speaks of battle. His English is fluent, touched with affection, his wife is from Oxford, and her letters kept him sane.

Presence on the Farm: Reads aloud in both languages, repairs the radio, and teaches Roger the difference between wheat and barley. Doris finds him terribly calming.

Age: 35

Visuals: Medium height, sturdy build, and a round, ever-smiling face framed by shaggy dark hair. Looks more like a village baker than a soldier. His parachute landed in Devon, and he hasn’t stopped beaming since.

Backstory: Like Freddy, he fell into England with the grace of bad luck and good timing. Talks about home with fondness and food with reverence.

Presence on the Farm: Loves mucking in, sings while he works, and says he makes potato cakes. Roger asks if they are “better than Mabel’s”

Age: 20

Visuals: Dark hair slicked back with effort (but never quite tamed), wiry moustache that he touches when nervous, and a self-assured lean that makes him look taller than he is.

Backstory: One of the younger POWs, Peter’s confidence borders on theatrical. His English is patchy and full of cheerful hand gestures, but his good nature bridges the gap.

Presence on the Farm: Always up for a task, especially if it involves climbing, fixing, or teasing Hans. Roger finds him hilarious; Mabel finds him exhausting. He calls Doris “Madame Soup.”

Daughter of the Local Vet

Age Range: 15

Visual Description: Tall with long fair hair pulled into a neat ponytail. Always dressed with ritualistic care: a pink flowery dress, powder pink cardigan, and black patent leather shoes polished until they wink in the light. Her outfit rarely changes; it’s her way of anchoring the world, one familiar thread at a time. Her expression flits between intense focus and wide-eyed wonder, depending on the company.

Character Description:

Susan lives within strict boundaries, some imposed, some self-made. Autistic and grieving, she finds the nuances of human interaction baffling and overwhelming. Since her mother’s death, her father, the village vet, shoulders the burden alone, often bringing Susan along on rounds or keeping her indoors for safety. Wartime austerity means no social care, no reprieve, just the daily improvisation of survival.

She mistakes isolation for secrecy at first, convinced that her father is hiding her from something. Her sense of logic is literal, her emotions vast. She laughs when others cry, and sometimes cries when others laugh.

Susan’s encounter with Mabel begins like a collision: she follows too closely, Mabel falls, and laughter breaks where concern should bloom. The resulting scuffle leaves Susan unconscious, but not harmed. Mabel, haunted by the moment, seeks her out, only to discover the depth of Susan’s challenges. With her Aunt Rose’s help, Mabel contacts her uncle, a mental health specialist, planting the seeds of understanding.

Over time, Susan and Mabel forge an unexpected bond. They become mirrors and menders, each helping the other rewrite how pain and joy are processed, how healing can happen in shared silence or small routines.

Arc & Function in Story:

Susan’s journey is one of visibility. In a world too loud and chaotic, she is often misread, until Mabel listens. Their friendship becomes a thread of emotional repair running beneath the wider story of wartime loss and domestic resilience.

She reflects the impact of service cuts on families already struggling to exist, and her presence offers both challenge and grace to those around her. By Christmas, Susan isn’t just included, she’s essential. Whether helping Mabel with decorations or sharing quiet space with Roger, her clarity and ritual add a humbling depth to the farm’s collective healing.