Roland is a 29-year-old literary scholar struggling with underemployment in 1986 London. He works part-time as a research assistant in the Ash Factory at the British Museum, studying the works of the eminent Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. He lives in a dreary basement apartment with his partner, Val, feeling stagnant in both his career and personal life. His discovery of hidden draft letters sparks a secretive academic quest that revitalizes his intellectual curiosity.

Maud is a feminist scholar at Lincoln University and a leading authority on the Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte. She curates the Women's Resource Centre archive and maintains an immaculate, highly guarded personal demeanor. Her past affair with a colleague left her deeply wary of emotional intrusion, leading her to prioritize professional distance. She agrees to collaborate with Roland, utilizing her methodical research skills to trace the history of her distant relative.

Ash is an eminent Victorian poet widely respected for his intellectually rigorous work and his seemingly tranquil 40-year marriage. Modern scholars dedicate their careers to studying his life and writings, viewing him as a master of poetic ventriloquism. The discovery of his passionate, urgent draft letters to an unidentified woman contradicts his established public persona of serene domesticity. He possesses a voracious curiosity that spans mythology, geology, and natural history.

Christabel is a 19th-century English poet who lives a largely secluded life in a cottage in Richmond. She writes religious poems, children's stories, and an epic poem about the fairy Melusina. She values her independence highly, viewing her domestic arrangement as a protective sanctuary that allows her to focus entirely on her creative work. Her initial correspondence with Randolph Henry Ash is witty and guarded, demonstrating her intellect while attempting to maintain strict private boundaries.

Cropper is a wealthy American academic and the world's leading biographer of Randolph Henry Ash. He curates the Stant Collection in New Mexico and is obsessed with physically acquiring every artifact associated with the poet. He views his British academic rivals as mere obstacles to his goal of total ownership over Ash's historical legacy. His methods are ruthless and often manipulative, driven by a deep desire for status and historical possession.

Val is Roland's long-term partner and a former academic who supports them financially through a series of temporary typing and secretarial jobs. She is deeply unhappy with her menial work and resents Roland's lack of professional success. Her cynical worldview contrasts sharply with Roland's romantic literary interests, leading to frequent tension and long silences in their flat. She feels trapped in a stagnant, disappointing life.

Professor Blackadder is a veteran Scottish academic running the Ash Factory, an underfunded project dedicated to annotating and publishing Ash's extensive writings. He is Roland's former supervisor and current employer. He exhibits a gruff, beleaguered demeanor and constantly worries that American scholars, particularly Mortimer Cropper, will purchase British literary artifacts and take them overseas. Despite his irritable nature, he possesses a deep scholarly integrity.

Leonora is a prominent American feminist academic working at a university in Tallahassee. She is an expert on Christabel LaMotte and authored a book interpreting LaMotte's landscapes as symbols of female sexuality. She is physically imposing, emotionally expansive, and fiercely confident in her theoretical approach to literature. Her boisterous personality often overwhelms the more reserved British scholars she interacts with.

Fergus is a flashy, ambitious scholar and a colleague of Roland. He embraces trendy postmodern literary theories and uses his academic knowledge as a tool for personal advancement and seduction. He is highly competitive and actively seeks to uncover what Roland and Maud are researching in order to exploit the discovery for his own career. He represents the cynical, careerist side of 1980s academia.

Dr. Beatrice Nest is a solitary, timid academic who has spent decades editing the journals of Ellen Ash. Originally drawn to Randolph Henry Ash's love poetry, she was steered by male superiors into the more manageable project of studying his wife. Over the years, she has become an obstructionist gatekeeper, fiercely protective of Ellen's private world and hesitant to share access to the archives with other researchers.

Ellen is the wife of Randolph Henry Ash, historically viewed as the perfect, placid Victorian spouse who provided a serene domestic life for the great poet. Modern scholars study her extensive journals, which largely detail household matters and daily routines. However, her writings also hint at a deeper, more complex interior life, revealing a woman who once harbored ambitions to be a poet herself.

Blanche is a Victorian artist and the live-in companion of Christabel LaMotte. Together, they share a home in Richmond they call Bethany, intending it to be a self-sufficient sanctuary for two independent women dedicated to art. Blanche is intensely devoted to their domestic arrangement and becomes deeply anxious and jealous when external influences threaten to disrupt their quiet, shared existence.

Sir George is the gruff, irascible owner of Seal Court, a crumbling Lincolnshire estate. He is a distant relative of Maud Bailey's family branch. He harbors a deep disdain for academics and modern scholarship, strongly preferring his privacy over historical discovery. When Roland and Maud find old letters in his house, he immediately confiscates them to assert his property rights.

Lady Bailey is the elderly, wheelchair-bound wife of Sir George Bailey. She lives at Seal Court and provides a gentle counterweight to her husband's hostility. She is curious and hospitable, inviting Roland and Maud into her home for tea and showing a genuine, if naive, interest in their historical investigation.

Euan is an affluent, confident solicitor who becomes involved with Val. He represents a world of financial stability and straightforward success that contrasts sharply with the anxious, underfunded realm of literary academia. Despite his corporate profession, he possesses a surprising appreciation for poetry and a warm, uncomplicated demeanor.

Sabine is a Breton cousin of Christabel LaMotte and an aspiring writer. She lives in a manor in Finistère, Brittany, where she receives Christabel as a guest in 1859. Her journal provides a crucial firsthand account of Christabel's time in France, capturing Sabine's initial excitement at meeting her poet cousin and her subsequent jealousy over Christabel's bond with her father.

Ariane is a French scholar who uncovers new leads regarding Christabel LaMotte's undocumented travels in Brittany. She provides Roland and Maud with a photocopy of Sabine de Kercoz's journal, giving them crucial archival evidence to continue their investigation in France.

Hildebrand is the dissolute son of the current Lord Ash and the heir to the Ash estate. He is easily swayed by Mortimer Cropper, who courts him in hopes of gaining unfettered access to the family's historical manuscripts and relics.

Toby Byng is a lawyer and the professional partner of Euan MacIntyre. He acts as the legal counsel for Sir George Bailey, tasked with managing the sudden, highly contentious discovery of valuable historical documents on the Bailey estate.