# John Boulnois — The Wisdom of Father Brown character guide

> John Boulnois in The Wisdom of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Calhoun Kidd, Mr. Kidd, Boulnois, Calhoun Kidd, Kidd, Mr. Boulnois

**First appearance:** 0012-the-strange-crime-of-john-boulnois

## Snapshot

An unobtrusive Oxford philosopher whose theory of Catastrophism makes him briefly famous in America, and whose quiet cottage becomes the scene of a stranger crime.

## Who they are

Boulnois writes articles on weak points in Darwinian evolution for a journal nobody reads, until an American newspaper turns him into a headline and sends a reporter to his door. He lives outside Oxford in happy ignorance of his own notoriety, a thinker more at home with stationary universes than with the jealousies and appetites gathering around him. His world of abstract catastrophe is about to be interrupted by a very concrete one, and the collision is the whole point.

## Relationships

### [Father Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/father_brown)

_professional_

Father Brown investigates John Boulnois, a man suspected of murder, and uncovers the truth behind his troubled marriage.

### [Mrs. Boulnois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/mrs_boulnois)

_family_

John and Mrs. Boulnois are a married couple whose relationship is strained by suspicion and potential infidelity.

### [Sir Claude Champion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/sir_claude_champion)

_rivalry_

John Boulnois and Sir Claude Champion are bitter rivals, with Champion suspected of having an affair with Boulnois's wife.

### [Mrs. Boulnois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/mrs_boulnois)

_family_

John and Mrs. Boulnois are a married couple whose relationship is strained by suspicion and potential infidelity.

### [Father Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/father_brown)

_professional_

Father Brown investigates John Boulnois, a man suspected of murder, and uncovers the truth behind his troubled marriage.

### [Mrs. Boulnois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/mrs_boulnois)

_family_

John and Mrs. Boulnois are a married couple whose relationship is strained by suspicion and potential infidelity.

### [Father Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/father_brown)

_professional_

Father Brown investigates John Boulnois, a man suspected of murder, and uncovers the truth behind his troubled marriage.

## In the story

### [The Strange Crime of John Boulnois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/chapters/the-strange-crime-of-john-boulnois)

The philosopher who committed perjury by claiming he went to Pendragon Park.

### [The Strange Crime of John Boulnois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/chapters/the-strange-crime-of-john-boulnois)

American journalist for The Western Sun, interviewing Boulnois about Catastrophism.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters/john_boulnois
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_wisdom_of_father_brown_se/characters