# The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane — Character guide

> Key figures in The Revolution in Tanner’s Lane by Mark Rutherford.

- [Thomas Broad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/thomas_broad.md): Mr. Broad presides over Tanner's Lane as its eminently orthodox minister, his family the model of respectable Dissent, his Monday picnics at Shott Woods a fixed institution. Yet his somnolent virtue hides a bitter, conce
- [George Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/george_allen.md): George Allen belongs to Tanner's Lane on Sundays but to a more dangerous current the rest of the week, his household steeped in Zachariah's letters and the politics of the age. The Broads feel the cross in him — nothing 
- [Zachariah Coleman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/zachariah_coleman.md): Zachariah is the novel's radical conscience — a printer caught in the suspended Habeas Corpus days, moving among Ogden, Caillaud, and the Major as the march on London approaches. His marriage to a wife he stimulates only
- [Pauline](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/pauline.md): Pauline keeps her father's small house and receives his visitors, her beauty and decision of lip already famous as far as Cowfold. When the callow Thomas Broad arrives with his smelling-salts and greasy compliments, her 
- [Mrs. Zachariah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_zachariah.md): She is the domestic counterweight to Zachariah's public fervor, a woman whom neighbors call hard and even cruel, though the narrator insists her injustice grows from a false relationship rather than a false nature. With 
- [Mrs. Broad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_broad.md): Mrs. Broad is the presiding respectability of Tanner's Lane, high-headed, managing, and utterly certain of her own judgments, whether naming an infant's lineage or warning her son away from disreputable friends. Nurse Ba
- [Mr. Bradshaw](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mr_bradshaw.md): Bradshaw is the magnetic preacher whose gifts the Major cannot stop praising, a man who can make a hardened Londoner resolve to reread the Bible. Yet Zachariah wishes he would choose a New Testament text and preach Chris
- [Mrs. Coleman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_coleman.md): Mrs. Coleman belongs to the older, sober generation of Tanner's Lane believers, the kind of woman who keeps a copy of The Idler by her bed and quotes it to husband and son. Her faith is undramatic but steady, a counterwe
- [Mr. Caillaud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mr_caillaud.md): Caillaud and the Major stand together in St. Peter's Fields, aghast at the unarmed thousands who believe a petition will topple Lord Liverpool. He is a foreigner among English reformers, close enough to their hopes to sh
- [Reverend Thomas Bradshaw](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/reverend_thomas_bradshaw.md): Bradshaw is the orator whose sermon so moves the Major that he resolves to read Scripture again, though Zachariah wishes the text had been from the New Testament. He is a born speaker, the kind whose eloquence divides a 
- [Priscilla Broad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/priscilla_broad.md): Priscilla is the minister's daughter who marries George Allen, only to find herself the fault line between Tanner's Lane respectability and George's revolutionary sympathies. When her father bolts the door against George
- [Major Maitland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/major_maitland.md): Major Maitland moves easily between Mrs. Coleman's parlour and the radical club, a soldier of fortune whose cosmopolitan talk about France unsettles her tidy English certainties. He refuses to be upset by talk of the fat
- [Jean Caillaud](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/jean_caillaud.md): Jean Caillaud moves through the radical circles of Tanner's Lane as a Frenchman who has seen revolution up close and cannot forget it. His love for Pauline is a hungry, self-effacing fire — he falls silent when she speak
- [Carter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/carter.md): A servant or housekeeper, providing local color and gossip.
- [Mrs. Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_allen.md): George Allen's wife, a quiet but observant character.
- [Fanny Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/fanny_allen.md): Fanny Allen belongs to the tight web of Tanner's Lane families, where her father George's marriage to the minister's daughter Priscilla Broad has already stirred gossip and resentment. Raised amid chapel discipline and t
- [Old Bushel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/old_bushel.md): A rustic and comic figure, often providing earthy wisdom.
- [Victorine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/victorine.md): A French woman connected to the Caillaud family, adding a romantic subplot.
- [Mr. Coleman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mr_coleman.md): Zachariah's father, a figure of traditional authority.
- [Reverend John Broad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/reverend_john_broad.md): Thomas Broad's brother, a clergyman with differing views.
- [Brother Scotton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/brother_scotton.md): A member of the religious community, often involved in disputes.
- [Mr. Isaac Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mr_isaac_allen.md): A relative of George Allen, involved in family and business matters.
- [Mr. Hardy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mr_hardy.md): A figure of authority, possibly a magistrate or constable.
- [Nurse Barton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/nurse_barton.md): An elderly nurse, providing care and commentary.
- [Brother Wainwright](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/brother_wainwright.md): A member of the religious community, often in conflict with others.
- [William Ogden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/william_ogden.md): A figure involved in the political or religious scene.
- [Ferguson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/ferguson.md): A minor character, possibly a servant or tradesman.
- [Reverend James Harden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/reverend_james_harden.md): A clergyman, possibly involved in the religious controversies.
- [Brother Allen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/brother_allen.md): A member of the religious community, possibly related to George Allen.
- [Mrs. Barton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_barton.md): A nurse or caretaker, possibly the same as Nurse Barton.
- [Marie Pauline Coleman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/marie_pauline_coleman.md): Pauline's child, a symbol of the next generation.
- [Mrs. Carver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_carver.md): A minor character, possibly a neighbor or servant.
- [Tryphosa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/tryphosa.md): A minor female character, possibly a servant or friend.
- [Ellen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/ellen.md): A minor female character, possibly a servant or relative.
- [Mrs. Muston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_revolution_in_tanner_s_lane_se/characters/mrs_muston.md): A married couple, possibly neighbors or friends.

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