# Mr. James Boswell — Midwinter character guide

> Mr. James Boswell in Midwinter by John Buchan.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Boswell, Boswell

**First appearance:** 0003-i-in-which-a-highland-gentleman-misses-his-way

## Snapshot

A young Scottish biographer and companion to Johnson, whose curiosity and social ease make him a natural conduit between the great and the obscure.

## Who they are

Boswell is the kind of traveller who collects people — Johnson above all, but also the gentry, the curious, and the well-connected he meets on the road. His appetite for company and anecdote places him at the edge of the novel's political world without making him a partisan of it. He matters because his sociability is a different kind of movement through the same country Alastair crosses in secret: where Alastair hides, Boswell talks.

## In the story

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/chapters/endnotes)

Referenced as the author of the Life of Johnson.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters/james_boswell
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/midwinter_se/characters