Black Swan Green characters

Appears from the start

A thirteen-year-old boy living in the Worcestershire village of Black Swan Green in 1982. Jason carefully hides a stammer that he imagines as an enemy called Hangman, while privately writing poems under a pen name. He is observant, imaginative, and acutely conscious of the village's shifting rules of popularity.

Appears from the start

Jason's name for the stammer he works constantly to conceal. Hangman is not a separate person but an adversarial presence in Jason's thoughts, blocking particular words and making ordinary conversations feel dangerous.

Appears from the start

Jason's mother, who runs the Taylor household and has begun building a working life of her own. She is attentive to Jason but does not know the full extent of the effort he makes to hide his speech difficulty.

Appears from the start

Jason's father, an executive whose company car and professional standing matter greatly to him. He can be companionable with Jason, but his temper and absences contribute to tension within the family.

Appears from the start

Jason's older sister, away at university for much of the year. Confident and perceptive, she understands more about their parents and about social survival than Jason initially does, even when her teasing irritates him.

Appears from the start

Jason's friend and fellow outsider. Dean is regularly mocked with the nickname Moron, but he is loyal, practical, and less foolish than the boys who dismiss him assume.

First appears in chapter 2

An older schoolboy whose confidence, strength, and place in the village hierarchy make him intimidating to Jason. Ross is quick to exploit weakness and is one of the boys from whom Jason most urgently hides his stammer.

First appears in chapter 2

A calculating boy at Jason's school who turns information and access into social power. His schemes make him dangerous in a world where embarrassment can determine a boy's standing.

First appears in chapter 3

Jason's older cousin, polished, adventurous, and apparently at ease with every rule Jason struggles to read. Jason admires him and is susceptible to his judgments during a family visit.

First appears in chapter 5

A young man from Black Swan Green serving in the Royal Navy as the Falklands conflict begins. To Jason and the village he is a familiar local figure, which makes the distant war newly immediate.

Also known as Madame Crommelynck

First appears in chapter 7

An elderly Belgian woman living in an unusual house in the village. On discovering that Jason writes poetry as Eliot Bolivar, she treats his work seriously and challenges him to value truth and precision over decorative language.

First appears in chapter 12

A girl Jason has long noticed from a distance. At the school disco she becomes an important test of whether he can stop letting fear, status, and imagined ridicule dictate every choice.