High-Rise characters

Appears from the start

A medical-school lecturer living alone on the twenty-fifth floor after his divorce. Laing values the tower's privacy and controlled conveniences, and initially watches its social tensions with clinical detachment. He moves easily enough among its middle-level professionals without fully joining any camp.

First appears in chapter 2

An architect who helped design the high-rise and occupies its penthouse. A past accident has left him with a damaged leg. Royal regards the building as an ambitious social experiment and identifies with the affluent residents of its upper floors.

First appears in chapter 3

A television producer who lives with his family on a lower floor. Physically forceful, restless, and conscious of the tower's class divisions, Wilder wants to document the mounting disorder and is increasingly drawn to the upper floors that exclude him.

Appears from the start

Laing's neighbor and lover, who lives one floor above him with her young son. Charlotte is socially perceptive and more involved than Laing in the shifting alliances among residents, though she also tries to protect a workable private life inside the tower.

Appears from the start

Charlotte Melville's young son and one of the many children whose routines depend on the tower's schools, recreation areas, and elevators. His presence makes the adults' disputes over shared space more immediate for Charlotte and Laing.

First appears in chapter 3

Richard Wilder's pregnant wife and the mother of their children. Helen is left to manage domestic life on the lower floors while her husband spends more time pursuing the tower's conflicts and his proposed film.

First appears in chapter 2

Anthony Royal's wife and a member of the tower's wealthy upper-floor circle. Anne shares the penthouse environment but is less invested than her husband in treating the building as a personal creation.

First appears in chapter 5

Robert Laing's sister and another resident of the high-rise. Her family connection gives Laing an additional tie within the building even as both become absorbed in its increasingly self-contained life.

First appears in chapter 12

A physician among the high-rise's upper-level residents. Pangbourne belongs to Royal's social group and becomes involved in its efforts to control territory and movement as ordinary neighborly relations deteriorate.