Fictional characters
Poppy Denby – arts and entertainment editor for The Daily Globe, London. Daughter of Methodist ministers from Morpeth, Northumberland. Our heroine.
Dot (Dotty/Dorothy) Denby – Poppy’s aunt. A former leading lady of the West End stage; an infamous suffragette and influential benefactor of feminist and socialist causes. Crippled during a suffragette demonstration in 1910.
Miss Gertrude King – Dot’s recently appointed assistant.
Grace Wilson – Dot’s long-term companion and fellow suffragette, currently serving a two-year jail sentence.
Marjorie Reynolds – leading female MP, minister to the Home Office and friend of Aunt Dot.
Oscar Reynolds – son of Marjorie, owner of Oscar’s Jazz Club.
Delilah Marconi – Poppy’s best friend, actress at the Old Vic, daughter of deceased suffragette, jazz scene socialite and Bright Young Thing.
Victor Marconi – Delilah’s father, wealthy hotelier from Malta, nephew of famous Guglielmo Marconi (Uncle Elmo).
Adam Lane – Delilah’s current boyfriend, actor at the Old Vic.
Daniel Rokeby – photographer at The Globe, suitor of Poppy.
Rollo Rolandson – owner and chief editor at The Globe, American, virulent anti-prohibitionist, compulsive gambler, suffers from dwarfism.
Ivan Molanov – archivist at The Globe, White Russian emigré, close friend of Rollo.
Ike Garfield – political editor at The Globe, West Indian, new to staff.
Mavis Bradshaw – receptionist at The Globe, “mother” to staff.
Vicky Thompson – editorial assistant at The Globe, new to staff.
Lionel Saunders – arts and entertainment editor at The Courier; embittered rival of Poppy; ex-Globe journalist; snake in the grass.
Yasmin Reece-Lansdale – female solicitor hoping to become Britain’s first female barrister, girlfriend of Rollo Rolandson. Daughter of British major general and Egyptian socialite.
Comrade Andrei Nogovski – security consultant at the Russian embassy; Bolshevik.
Vasili Safin – People’s Commissar for Foreign Trade, Bolshevik; temporary stand-in for Russian ambassador to London, whose post is currently vacant due to civil war in Russia.
Princess Selena Romanova Yusopova – White Russian refugee, ageing actress, currently starring in The Cherry Orchard at the Old Vic; cousin of Tsar Nicholas II; friend of Dot Denby and Victor Marconi.
Detective Chief Inspector Jasper Martin – head of the detective division, Metropolitan Police.
Count Sergei Andreiovich – former emissary and military advisor of Tsar Nicholas II.
Countess Sofia Romanova Andreiovich – wife of Count Sergei.
Anya Andreiovich – their seven-year-old daughter; has a dachshund called Fritzie.
Nana Ruthie/Ruth Broadwood – English nanny to Anya.
Arthur Watts – barman at Oscar’s Jazz Club.
The man in the bearskin coat – for me to know and you to find out.
Historical characters
George Bernard Shaw – British playwright, founder of the Fabian Society and leading socialist.
Norman Veitch – founder of the People’s Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne, member of the Fabian Society, friend of George Bernard Shaw (distant relative of the author).
Lilian Baylis – founder of the Old Vic Theatre, the National Theatre, Ballet and Opera, champion of theatre for the people.
Constantin Stanislavski – Russian theatre director and one of the most influential drama theorists of the twentieth century.
Prince Felix Yusopov – assassin of Rasputin, son of wealthiest man in Russia, White Russian refugee.
Princess Irina Alexandrovna Yusopov – wife of Felix, cousin of Tsar Nicholas II and (in this book only) Princess Selena.
Empress Maria Federovna of Russia – Mother of Tsar Nicholas II, sister of Queen Alexandra of Great Britain, refugee. Originally Princess Dagmar of Denmark.
Queen Alexandra of Great Britain – Mother of King George V; former Danish princess.
Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra (Nicky and Alix) – last reigning Romanov monarchs murdered with their five children in 1918.
David Lloyd George – Prime Minister of Great Britain (1916–22); Chancellor of the Exchequer 1908–15.