# The Food of the Gods — Character guide

> Key figures in The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells.

- [Mr. Bensington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/mr_bensington.md): Bensington is the mild, methodical researcher whose study becomes the birthplace of the Food of the Gods, and he spends much of the story wishing it had stayed there. He dreads publicity, squirms under the nickname 'Boom
- [Professor Redwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/professor_redwood.md): Redwood co-discovers the Food but quickly becomes its most committed advocate, convinced his growing boy must have it regardless of the cost. Where Bensington hesitates, Redwood pushes forward, furnishing a nursery with 
- [Cossar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/cossar.md): Cossar is the practical, exuberant counterweight to Bensington's timidity and Redwood's brooding — a man who gives the Food to all three of his boys without a flicker of doubt. He treats the coming upheaval as obvious an
- [Young Redwood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/young_redwood.md): Young Redwood is the first child of the Food, a boy whose astonishing growth — fifty-nine pounds by six months — shatters his family's ordinary life and forces the discovery into the open. His father plans his education 
- [Caterham](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/caterham.md): Caterham is the rising voice of opposition, turning the Food into a political cause by harping on what happens if it escapes again. He is mocked as an alarmist at first, yet his warnings about people thirty-seven feet hi
- [Dr. Winkles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/winkles.md): Dr. Winkles is the meddling popularizer whose chatter about the Food does more to inflame public opinion than any deliberate attack. He drops the loaded nickname 'Boomfood,' alarms people with talk of what might happen, 
- [Skinner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/skinner.md): Skinner is the practical man on the ground at the experiment's first real test site, writing Bensington cautious letters about feed running short and a milk pudding that went disastrously wrong. He is proud of his manage
- [Caddles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/caddles.md): Young Caddles grows up enormous in Cheasing Eyebright, gentle with chicks and kittens, awkward among ordinary people, and increasingly unable to accept the answers he is given about work, class, and Lady Wondershoot's ca
- [Lady Wondershoot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/lady_wondershoot.md): Lady Wondershoot rules her corner of Kent from a carriage, dispensing disapproval through coachman and footman and summoning emissaries when the Food's consequences intrude on her estate. She is magnificently certain of 
- [The Giant Princess](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/the_giant_princess.md): The Princess has grown up free among upland wastes and mountains, only to find her freedom curtailed by an English public that arrives in brakes and excursion trains to stare. She is lonely in a way no ordinary companion
- [Jane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/jane.md): Mr. Bensington's cousin who manages his household.
- [Mr. Carrington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/carrington.md): A journalist who reports on the Food of the Gods.
- [The Podbourne Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/the_podbourne_doctor.md): A local doctor who treats the effects of the Food.
- [The Vicar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/the_vicar.md): A village clergyman who comments on the giant children.
- [Flack](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/flack.md): A local man involved in the village's reaction to the giants.
- [Mrs. Greenfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/mrs_greenfield.md): A villager affected by the Food's spread.
- [Miss Durgan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/miss_durgan.md): A woman who encounters the giant children.
- [Hickleybrow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/hickleybrow.md): A town where the Food causes giant growths.
- [Skelmersdale](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/skelmersdale.md): A young boy who consumes the Food and grows.
- [Miss Spinks](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/miss_spinks.md): A village woman who interacts with the giant children.
- [Sloppet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/sloppet.md): A child who eats the Food and grows.
- [Witherspoon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/witherspoon.md): A minor official dealing with the giant situation.
- [Kinkle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters/kinkle.md): A character mentioned in the later parts of the book.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_food_of_the_gods_se/characters