Whenever I write, one of my biggest challenges comes in finding believable names for my characters. I sometimes stoop to wandering around churchyards looking for suitable contributions from headstones. Terry Pratchett has no such problem. The names he creates are instantly recognisable, even when they are totally insane. In Dodger, his latest novel, the story is set in Dickensian London, and the dramatis personae includes some wonderfully descriptive names.
The dog is called Onan, by the way. I had to look that one up.
Right now, in this tangled, smelly but usually cheerful disarray, he recognised Bent Henry, Lucy Diver, One-Armed-Dave, Preacher, Mary-Go-Round, Messy Bessie and Mangle.
Dodger
Terry Pratchett
2012
The dog is called Onan, by the way. I had to look that one up.
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Some of the lads and lasses were drinking outside the Gunner's Daughter, sitting on the old barrels, bundles of rope, hopeless piles of rotting wood and all the other debris of the riverside. Sometimes it seemed to Dodger that the city and the river were simply all the same creature except for the fact tht some parts were a lot more soggy than others. Right now, in this tangled, smelly but usually cheerful disarray, he recognised Bent Henry, Lucy Diver, One-Armed-Dave, Preacher, Mary-Go-Round, Messy Bessie and Mangle.
Dodger
Terry Pratchett
2012
2 comments:
Hi Anne .. very clever and so obvious .. thanks for highlighting for us -
Hope you had a lovely peaceful (relatively!) time .. and continue to have an enjoyable festive season .. cheers Hilary
Not read that one yet, it is now on the bookshelf after Xmas.
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