THE ANGELA THIRKELL SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

INTRODUCTION TO JOHNNY PATE’S DICTIONARY

Thirkell’s novels are packed with people whose lives are intertwined and recur over several books. Johnny Pate was a Society member who catalogued people, homes, plots and other details, As he wrote to us:

“I have always loved the “Golden Age” English mysteries, the classic “whodunits” from the 1920’s and 1930’s, and my first encounter with one of Thirkell’s novels occurred when I purchased one from the mystery section of the bookstore. It quickly became obvious that the book wasn’t a mystery novel, but references to Barsetshire, Bishop Proudie, and Francis Arabin caught my attention. I had read several of Anthony Trollope’s novels and am quite fond of their relaxed but well-drawn portraits of Victorian England, so when I began to recognize characters about whom I found myself exclaiming “I know your grandfather!” I was hooked. This dictionary resulted from my keeping a card file of characters upon re-reading the books chronologically.”

Johnny was helped in his efforts by Jill Bielenberg of Tucson, Arizona; Edith Jeude, American Secretary of the Society; her husband Ed; and sister Phyllis Croghan.

Names in italics are characters who are mentioned in a book but never actually appear. Characters from Trollope’s novels are listed in bold Italics.

His original book contained the introduction, book title abbreviations, the dictionary, a dictionary of houses, and a summary of all of the books, reproduced here as individual files for your use.  The book Companions are made from the Dictionary.  The original for all have been reformatted to work for a variety of sizes for screen usage