Character guide

Anthea

major

Also known as the truthful Anthea, So Anthea

Anthea is the sister who feels every mishap as her own fault, from a badly darned hole to a forgotten brother, and who reaches for the poker to give her mother a believable reason for red eyes. She wants to be good and truthful, yet the carpet keeps demanding small deceits and large courage. Her blend of tenderness and nerve holds the children's adventures together when the Phoenix is asleep and the boys are pricking their fingers.

Cyril

major

Also known as Master Cyril, the sensible Cyril

Cyril is the practical one who votes for America, calculates what fourpence will buy, and tells his uncle exactly as much truth as an uncle can believe. He is brave in a pinch and useless with a needle, pricking his hand the moment he tries to help Anthea darn. His cautious, slightly bossy competence gives the children a leader when the carpet drops them somewhere strange, even as it keeps getting him into scrapes.

Robert

major

Also known as the more cautious Robert, O Robert

Robert is the boy who suggests letting the Phoenix decide, who compares flying to tobogganing, and who falls through the central darn without losing his nerve. He is loyal, game, and a little reckless, the sort of brother who keeps one-and-fivepence in a pocket with a hole and calls the disaster an adventure. His willingness to try things first makes him the engine of the children's wilder schemes, and his good humour keeps them from panicking when the carpet misbehaves.

Jane

major

Also known as Meantime Jane

Jane is the small sister who notices the carpet is the exact size of a tower top, who feels measles coming on when the world goes misty, and who cries noisily when the Lamb vanishes. She is sensible in her way, kind, and easily frightened, but her tears are honest and her wishes are simple. She matters because she is the one the others must protect, and because her fears give the magic its human weight.

The Phoenix

major

Also known as Phoenix, a Phoenix, the missing Phoenix, Good old beautiful Phoenix, O Golden Phoenix, Christmas, old Phoenix, dear Phoenix, Great Phoenix, O Phoenix

The Phoenix is the children's guide and resident expert on Bosh, magic carpets, and the importance of keeping one wish in reserve for emergencies. It is vain, courteous, easily bored, and unexpectedly tender about Robert, in whose Norfolk raiment it once nestled. Its calm pronouncements and sudden flights turn ordinary nursery troubles into adventures, and its willingness to fetch the lost Lamb shows that beneath the gold plumage it is genuinely fond of its small, noisy hosts.

The Lamb

supporting

Also known as Lamb, the desperately howling Lamb, happy Lamb

The Lamb is the toddler the older children are supposed to keep safe, a happy little presence who has never been out of loving sight until the carpet carries him off alone. His vanishing forces Anthea to deceive her mother with a poker-bruised hand and drives Cyril and Robert to manly, tearful desperation. He matters because he is what the magic can actually cost: not a thrilling adventure, but a baby brother gone into an enormous world.

Mother

supporting

Mother keeps the household running while Father writes, and her Sunday dinners and pretty sparkly shoes mark the safe, ordinary world the children keep vanishing from. She is kind but not always clever enough to know what is best, and Anthea's guilty secret about the carpet weighs heaviest against her trust. Her cheerful, distracted authority makes the children's double life both funnier and more tender.

Father

supporting

Father brings home Saturday flowers, works all week, and still gathers the children on the hearthrug for stories when he could be sleeping. His gentle joke about there being as good fish in the sea goes over the children's heads, hinting at adult worries beneath the domestic warmth. He anchors the book's sense of a loving, slightly precarious home worth returning to.

Mrs. Biddle

supporting

Also known as the changed Mrs. Biddle

Mrs. Biddle rules the kitchen with fury and a clenched fist, and her broken-basin rampage over the children's melted-lead fortune-telling is one of the book's great domestic eruptions. Her temper makes her a comic menace, but the children — especially Anthea — treat her with surprising gentleness, insisting it wasn't her fault. Her later softening shows how the carpet's magic spills over into ordinary household life.

The Reverend Septimus Blenkinsop

supporting

Also known as The Reverend Septimus, Septimus, the Reverend Septimus

The Reverend Septimus moves through the same shabby London streets as the children, a figure of respectable adult authority who nonetheless gets swept into their errands. His presence sharpens the contrast between the orderly world of clergymen and the rough, jeering crowds around Fetter Lane and Ludgate Circus. He matters because he shows how the carpet's adventures pull even grown-up, upright people into their orbit.

Miss Peasmarsh

supporting

Also known as poor Miss Peasmarsh

Miss Peasmarsh belongs to the ordinary, struggling London the children glimpse beyond their nursery, and she becomes a test of what the carpet is really for. Trying to help her pushes the children past pure adventure into questions about whether magic can actually mend a life. Her presence gives the book's whimsy a moral edge, reminding readers that wishes have consequences for real people.

Burglar

minor

Also known as IX The Burglar

A burglar who breaks into the house and is caught.

Eliza

minor

Also known as Queen Elizabeth

A historical figure briefly encountered via the magic carpet.

Selina

minor

Also known as Aunt Selina, Miss Selina

An aunt of the children who visits and interacts with them.

Ike

minor

Also known as Isaac

A servant or helper in the household.

Urb

minor

A minor character encountered during the children's travels.

Henri

minor

Also known as little Henri

A French boy the children meet on their adventures.

Panther

minor

A nickname for one of the children or a pet.

Mrs. Wigson

minor

A neighbor or acquaintance of the family.

Bobs

minor

A pet or nickname for a minor character.

The High Priest

minor

A figure from the Phoenix's past in ancient times.

Squirrel

minor

A nickname for one of the children.

Aunt Emma

minor

An aunt of the children who appears briefly.

Amelia

minor

Also known as Miss Amelia, Aunt Amelia

An aunt or family friend of the children.

Reginald

minor

Also known as Uncle Reginald

An uncle of the children.

Panty

minor

A nickname for a minor character or pet.

Daisy

minor

A minor character encountered during the story.

Zulieka

minor

A character from the Phoenix's past adventures.

The Psammead

minor

A sand-fairy from a previous story, briefly mentioned.

Pussy

minor

A cat belonging to the family.

Bob

minor

A minor character or servant.

Aggety

minor

Also known as Aggety dag, Aggety dag’

A nonsense name used in a rhyme or game.