Ken Follett: Fall of Giants

The first book in the Century series, 2010

DEWAR FAMILY

Senator Cameron Dewar

Ursula Dewar, his wife

Gus Dewar, their son

VYALOV FAMILY

Josef Vyalov, businessman

Lena Vyalov, his wife

Olga Vyalov, their daughter

OTHERS

Rosa Hellman, journalist

Chuck Dixon, school friend of Gus’s

Marga, nightclub singer

Nick Forman, thief

Ilya, thug

Theo, thug

Norman Niall, crooked accountant

Brian Hall, union leader

REAL HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

Woodrow Wilson, twenty-eighth president

William Jennings Bryan, secretary of state

Joseph Daniels, secretary of the navy

FITZHERBERT FAMILY

Earl Fitzherbert, called Fitz

Princess Elizaveta, called Bea, his wife

Lady Maud Fitzherbert, his sister

Lady Hermia, called Aunt Herm, their poor aunt

The Duchess of Sussex, their rich aunt

Gelert, Pyrenean mountain dog

Grout, Fitz’s butler

Sanderson, Maud’s maid

OTHERS

Mildred Perkins, Ethel Williams’s lodger

Bernie Leckwith, secretary of the Aldgate branch of the Independent Labour Party

Bing Westhampton, Fitz’s friend

Marquis of Lowther, “Lowthie,” rejected suitor of Maud

Albert Solman, Fitz’s man of business

Dr. Greenward, volunteer at the baby clinic

Lord “Johnny” Remarc, junior War Office minister

Colonel Hervey, aide to Sir John French

Lieutenant Murray, aide to Fitz

Mannie Litov, factory owner

Jock Reid, treasurer of the Aldgate Independent Labour Party

Jayne McCulley, soldier’s wife

REAL HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

King George V

Queen Mary

Mansfield Smith-Cumming, called “C,” head of the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau (later MI6)

Sir Edward Grey, M.P., foreign secretary

Sir William Tyrrell, private secretary to Grey

Frances Stevenson, mistress of Lloyd George

Winston Churchill, M.P.

H. H. Asquith, M.P., prime minister

Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force

Gini, a bar girl

Colonel Dupuys, aide to General Galliéni

General Lourceau, aide to General Joffre

REAL HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

General Joffre, commander in chief of French forces

General Galliéni, commander of the Paris garrison

VON ULRICH FAMILY

Otto von Ulrich, diplomat

Susanne von Ulrich, his wife

Walter von Ulrich, their son, military attaché at the German embassy in London

Greta von Ulrich, their daughter

Graf (Count) Robert von Ulrich, Walter’s second cousin, military attaché at the Austrian embassy in London

OTHERS

Gottfried von Kessel, cultural attaché at the German embassy in London

Monika von der Helbard, Greta’s best friend

REAL HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

Prince Karl Lichnowsky, German ambassador to London

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg

General of Infantry Erich Ludendorff

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, German chancellor

Arthur Zimmermann, German foreign minister

PESHKOV FAMILY

Grigori Peshkov, metalworker

Lev Peshkov, horse wrangler

PUTILOV MACHINE WORKS

Konstantin, lathe operator, chairman of the Bolshevik discussion group

Isaak, captain of the football team

Varya, female laborer, Konstantin’s mother

Serge Kanin, supervisor of the casting section

Count Maklakov, director

OTHERS

Mikhail Pinsky, police officer

Ilya Kozlov, his sidekick

Nina, maid to Princess Bea

Prince Andrei, Bea’s brother

Katerina, a peasant girl new to the city

Mishka, bar owner

Trofim, gangster

Fyodor, corrupt cop

Spirya, passenger on the Angel Gabriel

Yakov, passenger on the Angel Gabriel

Anton, clerk at the Russian embassy in London, also a spy for Germany

David, Jewish soldier

Sergeant Gavrik

Lieutenant Tomchak

REAL HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik Party

Leon Trotsky

WILLIAMS FAMILY

David Williams, union organizer

Cara Williams, his wife

Ethel Williams, their daughter

Billy Williams, their son

Gramper, Cara’s father

GRIFFITHS FAMILY

Len Griffiths, atheist and Marxist

Mrs. Griffiths

Tommy Griffiths, their son, Billy Williams’s best friend

PONTI FAMILY

Mrs. Minnie Ponti

Giuseppe “Joey” Ponti, her son

Giovanni “Johnny” Ponti, his younger brother

MINERS

David Crampton, “Dai Crybaby”

Harry “Suet” Hewitt

John Jones the Shop

Dai Chops, the butcher’s son

Pat Pope, Main Level onsetter

Micky Pope, Pat’s son

Dai Ponies, horse wrangler

Bert Morgan

MINE MANAGEMENT

Perceval Jones, chairman of Celtic Minerals

Maldwyn Morgan, colliery manager

Rhys Price, colliery manager’s deputy

Arthur “Spotty” Llewellyn, colliery clerk

STAFF AT TŶ GWYN

Peel, butler

Mrs. Jevons, housekeeper

Morrison, footman

OTHERS

Dai Muck, sanitary worker

Mrs. Dai Ponies

Mrs. Roley Hughes

Mrs. Hywel Jones

Private George Barrow, B Company

Private Robin Mortimer, cashiered officer, B Company

Private Owen Bevin, B Company

Sergeant Elijah “Prophet” Jones, B Company

Second Lieutenant James Carlton-Smith, B Company

Captain Gwyn Evans, A Company

Second Lieutenant Roland Morgan, A Company

REAL HISTORICAL CHARACTERS

David Lloyd George, Liberal member of Parliament

On the day King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, Billy Williams went down the pit in Aberowen, South Wales.

The twenty-second of June, 1911, was Billy’s thirteenth birthday. He was woken by his father. Da’s technique for waking people was more effective than it was kind. He patted Billy’s cheek, in a regular rhythm, firmly and insistently. Billy was in a deep sleep, and for a second he tried to ignore it, but the patting went on relentlessly. Momentarily he felt angry; but then he remembered that he had to get up, he even wanted to get up, and he opened his eyes and sat upright with a jerk.

“Four o’clock,” Da said, then he left the room, his boots banging on the wooden staircase as he went down.

Today Billy would begin his working life by becoming an apprentice collier, as most of the men in town had done at his age. He wished he felt more like a miner. But he was determined not to make a fool of himself. David Crampton had cried on his first day down the pit, and they still called him Dai Crybaby, even though he was twenty-five and the star of the town’s rugby team.

It was the day after midsummer, and a bright early light came through the small window. Billy looked at his grandfather, lying beside him. Gramper’s eyes were open. He was always awake, whenever Billy got up; he said old people did not sleep much.

Billy got out of bed. He was wearing only his underdrawers. In cold weather he wore his shirt to bed, but Britain was enjoying a hot summer, and the nights were mild. He pulled the pot from under the bed and took off the lid.