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Verdigris Deep / Well Witched

Who's Who

The Well Spirit

The Magwhite well holds more than water. Something has been living down there for a very long time. It is very old, not remotely human, and now that the coins have been stolen from its well it is extremely angry. It has a use for the thieves, however, and is determined to get its pennies’ worth.

Ryan Doyle

Smart and shy, with an orderly mind, Ryan is used to making his personality smaller so that others have more room. Until now he has been watcher rather than a doer, a follower rather than a leader. Nobody told him that he might need to be the hero.

Josh Lattimer-Stone

Armed with nerve, ingenuity and large helping of knuckleduster humour, Josh is ‘magnetic’. As far as Ryan and Chelle are concerned, he is their ringleader, protector and personal hero. There is something of the trickster in Josh, and following a trickster can carry a price…

Chelle Cooper

The contents of Chelle’s mind leak out through her mouth in a continual stream, and most of her friends have grown used to tuning her out her twittering. Which is a great pity, since sometimes the things she has to say are very, very important.

Anne Doyle (Ryan’s mother)

A writer of ‘unofficial autobiographies’, Anne Doyle is pushy, stubborn, sometimes unreasonable and invariably loathed by the celebrities whose lives she exposes. She bullies those she loves, rides roughshod over their wishes… and will defend them to the death.

Jonathan Doyle (Ryan’s father)

A professional theatre critic who tends to talk as if sharing a clever joke with an invisible audience. A household only has room for so much temperament and personality, and sometimes the Doyle home shows signs of cracking at the seams.

Miss Gossamer

Once upon a time, Miss Gossamer was a good friend of Chelle’s grandmother. Now that Chelle’s grandmother is dead, somehow Miss Gossamer has taken her place in the Cooper family. Nobody knows what Chelle thinks about this… because nobody ever listens to Chelle.

Pipette Macintosh

An experimental artist with an explosive temper, Pipette made a fine subject for one of Anne Doyle’s sensational books. Since then Pipette has shown her annoyance by painting the Doyles’ hedge pink in the dead of night and trying to sue. Even now the matter is not closed. Pipette knows how to hold a grudge.

Will Wruthers

A ‘floppy’ young man who lives with his mother and works behind a teashop counter, but is secretly filled with frustration and dreams of Harley Davidsons.

Donna Leas

None of our heroes are glad to see Donna, once a tyrannical ‘helper’ at their school. Now she is secretary to the professional psychic Jeremiah Punzell, and desperately smitten with him. Love doesn’t seem to have made her much nicer, though.

Jeremiah Punzell

A self-styled psychic and expert on Feng Shui and all things ‘holistic’. Jeremiah Punzell is a very loving person, but unfortunately most of his love is reserved for Jeremiah Punzell.

Jacob Karlborough

Once filled with hopes of performing in West End plays, the embittered Jacob now plays a rather tubby, middle-aged Harlequin in a shabby fairground show. He can often be seen in a sandwich board and cheery clown paint, advertising the fair in tones of loathing and despair.

Carrie

Some people decide to lock their door against the world. Some people get rid of the door altogether. It leaves you safe for a while, because the outside world cannot find you. But what happens if you change your mind, and want to leave the prison you have made for yourself?

The Lattimer-Stones (Josh’s adopted parents)

Josh’s adopted parents are collectors – collectors of art, garden features, people. There is always a slight sense that they regret have ‘collected’ Josh when he was young. Perhaps they were hoping for a son that matched their wallpaper better.