Character guide

Robert

major

Also known as Master Robert, Albert

Robert is one of the five children who digs up the Psammead and shares in its wishes, though he is often the one who suffers most from them. When a wish drops him among armoured men who call him a brave varlet, he clings to his dignity even as he longs to go home. His mix of pluck and panic makes him the reader's proxy whenever magic turns dangerous.

Cyril

major

Also known as the crafty Cyril

Cyril is the eldest of the five and the one who thinks fastest when a wish has landed them in trouble. He is scornful of easy comfort, pointing out that no grown-up would believe in a Psammead and that stolen jewels would make their mother a receiver of stolen goods. His clear-eyed pessimism keeps the others from confessing too soon, and his schemes shape how the children survive each magical mishap.

Anthea

major

Also known as Golden Guineas Anthea, the upright Anthea, the now reckless Anthea

Anthea is the well-brought-up sister who folds her nightgown by the seams and rises at five to dig up the Sand-fairy alone. She would rather carry a plan through by herself than share it, and her gentleness with the cold, cross Psammead wins her a lap and a truce from its wish-granting. Her carefulness and her willingness to act alone make her the moral centre of the children's adventures.

Jane

major

Also known as truthful Jane, the hopeful Jane

Jane is the child who sniffs when the grown-ups press, and who blurts out the truth about the Fairy when her mother demands it. She is loyal and literal, more likely to be frightened than to scheme, and her siblings sometimes treat her as the baby of the group. Her plain truthfulness keeps the others honest even when they would rather lie, and her fears give the wishes a human cost.

The Lamb

supporting

Also known as Lamb, the loyal Lamb, the whimpering Lamb, Lamb ducky, the new Lamb, the unwilling Lamb, the dear Lamb

The Lamb is the toddler brother whom Martha dresses in his best coat and the older children alternately cherish and try to hand off. When a careless wish ages him into a drawling young man in a grey flannel suit, the others must decide whether his mind grew up with his body. His transformation turns the family's ordinary burden of babysitting into a crisis that tests their loyalty and their nerve.

Martha

supporting

Also known as Martha'll

Martha keeps house for the children and the Lamb, laying the cloth with a bang and refusing to be flattered out of her suspicions. When Anthea offers her a Liberty box to take the Lamb to Rochester, Martha sees at once that the real aim is to get the baby off their hands. Her knowing, grudging compliance keeps the household running and gives the children's plots a practical, adult obstacle.

The Psammead

major

Also known as Psammead, The faithful Psammead, the Sammyadd, A Sammyadd, Sammyadd

Buried for thousands of years in a gravel-pit, the Psammead speaks in weary sighs and treats the children's desires as tiresome impositions on its retirement. It grants wishes literally and without warranty, then vanishes underground before the consequences arrive, leaving the children to explain the unexplainable to grown-ups who cannot believe in Sammyadds. Its stingy, pedantic magic is the engine of every misadventure, and its refusal to be seen or believed is what keeps the children's secret — and their guilt — locked inside the nursery.

Mother

supporting

Also known as Darling Mother

She arrives home to a house full of flowers and four children who suddenly cannot meet her eye, then opens a green leather case and finds a pearl-and-diamond ring that fits her wedding finger perfectly. Practical and kind, she calls for the police, questions Martha, and tries to make sense of a burglary that seems to have walked itself into her bedroom. Her steady, unmagical presence is exactly what the children cannot confide in — the gap between what they know and what she could believe is the story's quietest, sharpest tension.

Billy Peasemarsh

supporting

Also known as Mr. Billy Peasemarsh, Mr. Peasemarsh, William, Bill

He is the respectable young man Martha means to marry, a strong-armed gamekeeper who offers to clean the windows from the outside while she works within — an alibi that sounds innocent and looks suspicious. When the children's wish dumps Lady Chittenden's stolen jewels into their mother's room, his name surfaces in Martha's sobbing confession and the household's trust begins to fray. A minor figure with major consequences, he embodies how the Psammead's magic reaches out and tangles ordinary working lives in its wake.

Red Indians

supporting

Also known as the Red Indians, Indians, the Indians, The Indians

Summoned by a careless wish and a broken water-jug, they appear as a brown face peering through the Virginia creeper, feathers in long black hair, and reduce four children and a treacle-pudding to frozen silence. They are not villains so much as consequences — the literal answer to a wish nobody thought through, arriving exactly when Cyril insisted they could not. Their presence forces the children into hiding, councils, and the humiliating discovery that magic does not negotiate, it simply shows up.

Wulfric de Talbot

supporting

Also known as Sir Wulfric de Talbot, Sir Wulfric

He arrives in full chivalric plumage, complete with men-at-arms who mutter insults about Robert's looks, and conducts a siege with the serene confidence of a man who has never heard the word 'fix.' His archaic speech collides hilariously with Robert's schoolboy slang, and his polite sympathy — 'Alas for thy youthful fettered limbs!' — is offered to a boy who is merely grounded. He matters because he shows the children that a wish, once granted, brings its own world with it: a world with rules, pride, and no interest in being called back.

Lady Chittenden

minor

A local noblewoman who interacts with the children.

Father

minor

The children's father, who is often away on business.

Andrew

minor

A servant or worker at the children's home.

Hilary

minor

Also known as Dear Hilary

A character who appears briefly in the children's adventures.

Mr. Beale

minor

Also known as Beale

A gardener or workman at the children's home.

Jakin

minor

A servant or helper in the household.

St. Maur

minor

Also known as St.

A historical figure briefly mentioned in the story.

Panther

minor

Also known as Black Panther, O Black Panther

A nickname used by the children during imaginative play.

Pussy

minor

Also known as Pussy Ferox of the Phiteezi

A playful alias used by one of the children.

Squirrel

minor

Also known as Squirrel of the Moning Congos

Another nickname adopted by a child during games.

Baby

minor

Also known as The Baby, the Baby

An infant briefly appearing in the narrative.

Willum

minor

A local boy or servant mentioned in passing.

Amelia

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or neighbor.

Uncle Richard

minor

The children's uncle who visits occasionally.

Bobs

minor

Also known as poor old Bobs

A horse or pet mentioned by the children.

Eliza

minor

A maid or servant in the household.

Becca

minor

A minor character, possibly a friend or servant.

Devereux

minor

A name mentioned briefly in the story.

Granny

minor

An elderly relative of the children.

Jessie

minor

A servant or acquaintance of the family.