I am absolutely loving the chance to explain a little more about some of the key characters and the numerous interesting minor characters that share Annabelle Riley’s journey with her.
Today I want to feature one of the most important characters in the three books – yet someone who many of my friends who read the books had a bit of a Marmite reaction to. To me personally, Robin encompasses some of the qualities, characteristics and idiosyncrasies of men I have known and count among my closest friends – men who had the very best start in life as children and were on the road to success but encountered pitfalls and disappointments and have struggled to find themselves after a humiliation which caused a harder edge in them.
The reaction surprised me a little, but all the more need to enlighten others as to the Robin I see in my mind. He is a complex character, he has a personal story that is an important part of the series. I am going to try to avoid spoilers again…so much of this will be about Robin’s backstory, rather than developments that occur during the storyline.
But first of all, I just want to share a paragraph about Robin’s parents. because I find it hard to share Robin without the context of his family:
Stephen and Fiona Grainger
Robin’s father Stephen is featured later on in the series, but I don’t think it is dropping any spoilers to tell you he has worked hard in business his whole life, and has a very disciplined and traditional outlook. He was the director of a major retail chain, before he became more involved in politics and advisory roles. Even after retirement, he continues to actively support charities and the arts. He owns a large estate out in Berkshire, an impressive town house in Chelsea, and holiday homes in Portugal and in Wales. He loves the countryside, but his commitments have meant he has had to frequently travel back and forth between London and Inkpen.
His wife Fiona has been his loyal support for decades, and is an impressive socialite. Due to her interest in both home cooking and fine dining restaurants, she dabbled at one stage in her own exclusive catering company, but as it expanded she sold her business as she realized she did not have the time to devote while supporting her husband’s aspirations and projects. The apple of their eye – their golden haired son Robin:
Robin Grainger
(imagine a gorgeous, charming, quick-witted, tall, fair-haired nearly 40 year old very English and well spoken Ryan Reynolds / Val Kilmer / Robert Redford with that slight air of James Bond)
Robin is the only child of a wealthy English couple (the extended family made up of his uncles, aunts and cousins are close-knit), and we are talking uber-posh, rural Southern England – grown up on a country estate, sent to boarding school (in England and then in Switzerland), annual skiing holidays, loved Safaris with his parents in Africa, excelled at everything he ever did – always top of his class, winning prizes in school debates, a natural linguist, and climbing the career ladder within the Finance world steadily.
As the only child, Robin is aware that at some stage he will lose his beloved parents and shoulder the responsibility of his father’s well-managed estate and modest fortune. Until that time, he has ambitions of his own. He wants to make a name for himself rather than always being in the shadow of his father. His father cannot help but direct advice to his son and use his contacts to try to speed up the progress of Robin’s chosen career.
Robin was married at a young age. When Robin was a teenager, his parents became chummy with the wealthy Renard and Odette Maréchal (Renard owns a chain of hotels and restaurants, several in Alpine ski resorts) and all four parents were willing to encourage an interest between Robin Grainger and Claudia Maréchal.
By his mid-thirties, Robin is divorced and excelling in his career in Finance. More than ever he wants to be his own man, and not under the thumb of his father. He has the opportunity to spend a year working with a major investments firm in New York to become more familiar with the workings of the New York Stock Exchange and to build his circle of contacts. A friend of his father’s has promised him an extraordinary role back in the City of London at the end of his year in New York. Everything is on course for Robin to be at the top of his field before he turns forty.
At this stage of his life, he considers himself a charming and wholesome rogue, and is not looking for any serious relationship, but enjoys the thrill of the chase with beautiful women. After nine months of hard work in New York and attending lots of professional and social events, meeting and greeting, sometimes with the guy he is sharing a flat with (who works for a media company) Robin attends a glitzy PR event. Robin is just about the hottest creature ever to wear a tuxedo – his Englishness making giving him the ultimate air of James Bond. But there is someone else at that event who turns heads and captures Robin’s attention – the stunning Annabelle Riley.
I don’t want to drop any spoilers, but Robin’s meeting with wild-hearted Annabelle brings along with it a complete contrast to everyone and everything he has known. By the time Book One begins, a complex connection between Robin and Annabelle is hanging in the air and leaves particularly Annabelle in a fog of confusion and uncertainty.
If you are intrigued about the part Robin Grainger plays in the story, you know where to find him:
I have been wanting to tell you this little story for some time, because I have to laugh at the way a five year old me thought. This is me at around five years old, wearing my cool sunglasses and faux leather jacket and feeling like a rock star. I had lost my front teeth. I know one of them fell out when I ate a banana (I accidentally swallowed it with the banana), but can’t remember what happened to the other one.
I remember two school trips that first year of school, one was in the summer and it was to Chester Zoo, where my teacher bought me an orange ice-lolly. I remember that ice-lolly as delicious, but a lot of it melted all over my beautiful peach coloured dress. Even today I can describe many of my childhood dresses. I had a beautiful collection.
My mum had mentioned to quite a few people that I was looking forward to my first school trip and that she was going to buy me some sweets. Well…the kind folk who heard this all decided that they wanted to buy me some sweets for my school trip. I ended up with an entire carrier bag full of all types of sweets including my favourites which Mumma had bought me.
And I also remember thinking to myself (although I can’t remember if I said it out loud) that the other children would be so jealous of how many sweets I had. Mum made it clear that I was to give the sweets to my teacher and tell her that they were for every one on the coach to share. I was horrified by this suggestion. As far as I was concerned, they were my sweets. I could not understand why I had to share them with the other children on the coach. How shameful!!! It took me a while to learn that we should want to share what we have with others! At the age of five, I did not comprehend why I would want those other children to have my sweets.
Mumma and my Dadda would have many lessons to teach me! I am so proud of them for their patience and persistence. Eventually I did forge close friendships with other children at at school and of course I would share my sweets and crisps with them. How grateful I am for all of the lessons learned as a child. Wonderful Mumma and Dadda never gave up đŸ™‚
Have you ever had a friend tell you a story and they break down in tears of laughter to the extent that they find it hard to control themselves? You can barely make out what they are saying because they are giggling so much and their whole face and neck is crimsoning as the hilarity overwhelms them?
Before long both Tina and Max were bent sideways laughing, both with crimson faces as they tried to tell the rest of us the story while they laughed uncontrollably. I did not know Jim well, but I knew he was the maintenance manager of the complex, within which the first aid course was being held. Max was a member of the maintenance team. It was an enormous property so there were a number of plumbers, electricians, joiners, decorators etc.
In the end it was Jim who told us the story, and even he was laughing. Between the three of them the information I managed to absorb was that Jim was on a construction project in Russia during the colder months. It was very cold, very very cold. Jim’s glove had become stuck to something, because of the freezing conditions. In the attempt to disconnect himself, which he managed to do, the force made him lose his balance and he toppled over and landed on a metal spike. The spike impaled him through the buttocks.
Later on in hospital, Jim was told the spike had narrowly avoided going through the essential passage, and he had got away with a rather deep gouge in the more padded part of his plumpish behind.
So when I saw the writing prompt from
Two of our friends (a married couple) had a VW Camper Van. So we all got changed in the back of the van. The girls went first, we had to take our damp clothes off and have a quick dry off and put on our warm dry clothes. Then it was the lad’s turn to change. Once we had all changed, we walked up the hill so we could have a goodbye drink with our friend who was moving abroad for his wedding.
Yet after I said goodbye to him after our second date, I walked home in tears. It was a beautifully sunny day and the sky was blue. I looked up at planes stretching across the sky leaving white chemtrails and wished that I was on one of them. I wish I could walk to my local underground station and swipe my Oyster card and board a train that would take me to Adelaide, Australia. I wish it would take me to exactly where Goldfinch is.
I just need him to hold me close for a while, maybe just a few minutes, maybe a few hours, I don’t know, but just long enough to make it all better. And then…because I know there is a lot that he needs to be getting on with, I would board the train again and return to London until next time.
Maybe another time I would have something more interesting to say on the subject of “soul mates”.
Growing up in England, I know a lot about rain. I have umbrellas a plenty – one in each bag that I use regularly. I also have a mini-umbrella hanging from my front door latch, so I can grab it on my way out if I am going somewhere without a bag (which is rare – I am almost always lugging numerous bags around with me).
However, after my first holiday in a hotter country which was dry, and had orange sand everywhere and very little green and hardly any flowers. I came back to England and suddenly saw not grey, but green everywhere. I realized that for so long I had been seeing grey, but there was abundant green all year round. It took me a while to realize how gorgeous England is because of all the rain that comes our way.
I grew in appreciation for the rain and I started to realize that the more rain there was, the more lush was the summer. The more rain, the more beautiful and colourful the flowers. I love what the rain does to our gardens, to the parks, to the countryside. It certainly does make England extra pretty and very lush at times.
There are times when I have been all dressed up and on my way to a special event when the rain has of course been inconvenient. I have had had a few disasters.
Of course when I am wearing appropriate footwear, puddles are a completely different matter!
There was a time when I was an expert. During the eight years I worked in finance, there was one particular area where I really was the expert. The company had a policy on the expense claims that could be submitted by employees for travel and other business expenses. It was a long policy, a very long policy. According to the long document, it was originally put together by the directors of the company. But realistically, it was probably not them, but someone who worked in the accounts department or personnel department. Nobody seemed to want to claim responsibility for the contents of the expenses policy. They all said it was drawn up before their time.
When I took over the expenses ledger and was dealing with hundreds of claims each week from employees up and down the country, it became apparent that nobody really understood the policy. My manager did not understand it, the finance controller did not understand it, the finance director did not understand it, none of the directors understood it.
So I read it all, and re-read it, and circled parts that did not make sense and brought them to the attention of my manager. After the contradictions had been clarified, the full expenses policy was published on the company intranet. For the following few years I had four different supervisors, all of whom I had to train and explain the expenses policy to. I was the expert. I just made sure that if there were any issues, I presented them to my supervisor so that they could take the issue to the manager or director. If you ever have a boss – the key to good relations is to try to make your boss look good. Believe me, it makes your working life much more pleasant. Don’t be a glory hunter. Your boss will make your life miserable.
I realized that I am quite good at reading, absorbing, applying policies and explaining them to others. I know it sounds rather boring, but I was receiving scores of phone-calls a day asking me to explain areas of the expenses policy. Nobody else seemed able to answer those questions. Everyone knew to ring Mel – she will answer all of your questions.
Caramel 