The 100 favourite fictional characters... as chosen by 100 literary luminaries - Features - Books

The Elephants Child. chosen by Michael Morpurgo (Private Peaceful). The exactly So Stories by Rudyard Kipling taught me to love the practice of medicine in words. tho what made me sine qua non to listen to the melody was the feisty Elephants Child, who, with his impertinently acquired trunk, has much(prenominal) impudent revenge on entirely his chastising relatives. Nigel Molesworth. chosen by Joanne Harris (Chocolat). The literary hero who has remained closely dear to me is Geoffrey Willanss schoolboy, Nigel Molesworth - a fearless critic, a comedian, a subversive, a philosopher who discusses Camus on the football game pitch and whose trenchant powers of social description are, as whatever fule kno, enhanced by his appalling spelling. Sir Lancelot. chosen by Wendy Holden (The Wives of Bath). My darling suit - and the sexiest humanness in belles-lettres - is Sir Lancelot in Tennysons The dame of Shalott. He is emaciated with hilariously inoffensive zest - all that stuff intimately his silver spiel and blazened baldric, and his helmet with its plume. Its barely decent, frankly, and it puts a smile on my face either time I read it. Philip Marlowe. elect by Michael Connelly (The Narrows). Philip Marlowe, the privy detective created by Raymond Chandler, is the most inspirational and influential reference point I claim ever met. He chimed with all my fantasies of gallantry and toughness and loneliness. Mrs Chippy. elect by Lynne berth (Eats, Shoots Leaves). Mrs Chippy, from Mrs Chippys Last dispatch by Carolean Alexander, is a record based on the real-life fathead that went on the Endurance with Shackleton. The bank clerk of the book, shes engaging and - typically for a cat - regards herself as an of the essence(p) member of the journey.She was the completely casualty of the expedition and the book ends when they are closely to pullulate her because they couldnt take her crosswise the ice. Mrs Norris. chosen by Sally Beau man (The landscape painting of Love). Mrs Norris in the look satire existencesfield set . is Austens most profound, subtle portrait of the platitude of evil. Madame Bovary. Chosen by David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas). \nI cant weft just one, scarce at the fabricated People Awards service I consent they put me on a panel with Mikhail Bulgakovs Devil and Robert Bolts doubting Thomas More, for their erudition and conversation. The Cheshire puke would be get for his humour and his easiness with practical metaphysics. Finally, Madame Bovary should corrupt her way to our table, flushed-looking and late, to grip some dump on the judges. Harriet M Welsch. Chosen by Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring) \nHarriet M Welsch, in Harriet the emissary by Louise Fitzhugh, is a precocious 11-year-old saucy Yorker who is obsessed with spying. Her friends fling her for writing savagely honest things about them. Harriet is curious, truthful, and a lone hand - all qualities a wri ter needs. Toad. Chosen by Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo). My favorite literary character is a toad, the comically cantankerous one-half of Arnold Lobels amphibian duo, salientian and Toad . I love him because he embodies so legion(predicate) human foibles, such as laziness, fear, and adhesiveness to routine. Kari Buhl. Chosen by Colin Wilson (The Outsider). The character I most adore is the hero of Hugo caravan Hofmannsthals social comedy The Difficult Man . Kari Buhl is an patrician who embodies his creators ideal of decency, modesty, intelligence, and large sensitivity to the feelings of others. \n