Stuart GrattonHistorian and oral history author; frame narrator
Born May 10 1941 in Cheshire; former history teacher turned popular historian; author of The Last Day of War, The Silver Dragons, and The Exhausted Rage; researching a figure named Sawyer in 1999; sitting at a poorly attended book signing in Buxton.
Harrythe babythe boy
Joe SawyerRAF bomber pilot; Olympic rower; one of identical twin brothers
The conscientious objector twin, returning home after the peace negotiations, who discovers his son has been born and named in his absence, sees Jack alive, collapses, and wakes dying in an ambulance — revealing the homecoming as a lucid imagining.
JLJ. L. SawyerJackJoeJosephJoseph Leonard SawyerSawyerGroup Captain Sawyerskip
BirgitHost family member; later romantic interest of Joe
Daughter in the Sattmann family hosting the twins in Berlin; plays violin (Beethoven's Romance No. 1); her music is audible during the twins' argument after the medal ceremony.
Leonard CheshireRAF bomber pilot; later Operation Maccabeus volunteer
On May 10 1941 crossing the North Atlantic by ship on ferry duty; interviewed by Gratton; later helps set up the Commonwealth Flight for the USAAF and participates in Operation Maccabeus evacuating European Jews to Madagascar.
Pilot Officer Leonard Cheshire, DSO DFC
Guy GibsonRAF night-fighter pilot; later politician
Based at RAF West Mailing on May 10 1941; flies a night patrol over London during a heavy Luftwaffe raid; cannon fails; later participates in Operation Maccabeus and becomes a Conservative MP.
Flight Lieutenant Guy Gibson, DFC
GoebbelsNazi propaganda minister; documentary film-maker in the alternate history
Nazi propaganda minister whose diary entries form an ironic documentary frame; manipulates Hess's peace mission for political advantage and plans to discredit Hess if the flight fails.
Dr GoebbelsReich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Rudolf HessActantial helper / historical figure
Hitler's deputy; encountered at the Berlin reception; makes veiled advances and pressures JL to attend a private dinner; later held at Camp 'Z' and the subject of JL's intelligence report.
Herr Deputy FührerHerr Deputy LeaderFraulein Hess
Jimmy NortonBritish Olympic rowing coach
Coach to the Sawyer twins during training and competition at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; greets them enthusiastically after they win bronze.
Ted BurrageFront gunner aboard the Wellington bomber
Front gunner on JL's Wellington; first to spot and report enemy aircraft below; witnesses a Messerschmitt Me-110 shot down by Me-109s over the North Sea.
Ted
Miss Victoria MacTyrehelper
War Office secretary assigned to JL; reads his Hess report in full and advises him to restructure it using a succinct question-and-answer format modelled on the Narvik inquiry.
Selwyn-Thaxtedhelper
British Embassy official who materializes at the reception to extract JL from Hess's increasingly threatening overtures.
Mr Selwyn-Thaxted
Albert Speerminor
Hitler's architect, mentioned by Hess as a fellow rowing enthusiast; never directly appears but name-dropped as a potential social contact.
Herr Speer
Winston ChurchillHistorical figure / antagonist to peace
British Prime Minister who resists the peace terms, refuses Hess's handshake at the signing, yet ultimately authorises and signs the armistice; delivers a triumphalist broadcast framing it as British victory.
Duke of LondonMr Churchillthe Prime MinisterP.M.
SamNavigator, crew member narrator
London-born navigator (from Tottenham) who joins JL's crew after getting lost on a solo flight; the close-third-person witness to JL's behaviour and the crew's missions.
LoftyFlight engineer
Flight engineer, nicknamed Lofty; one of the crew who confronts JL about his secret German phone calls.
John SkinnerWarrant Officer John Skinner
Kris GalasckjaRear gunner
Polish rear gunner; overhears JL speaking German and reports it to the crew; witnesses the Me-110 being shot down.
Kris
Colin AndersonWireless operator
Canadian wireless operator recruited to JL's crew.
Col
Red Cross tribunal observerNarrator (documentary frame)
Unnamed Red Cross official monitoring CO tribunals; later facilitates Sawyer's recruitment to the Red Cross; provides the formal observer's report voice.
Patrick MathesonTribunal chairman
Owner of a large Manchester insurance brokerage; chairs the Macclesfield tribunal; constitutionally intolerant of pacifists but awards Sawyer unconditional registration.
Agnes KilcannonTribunal member
Deputy chairwoman of Macclesfield Town Council; presses Sawyer on ARP conditions; appears to approve of his honest admission of doubt.
Mrs Kilcannon
Revd Michael HutchinsonTribunal member
Vicar on the tribunal; questions Sawyer's religious faith and agnosticism.
Ken WilsonRed Cross colleague
Red Cross worker who tends Joe in the ambulance after the blast injury and explains what happened to him.
Dr Burckhardtactantial:sender/helper
International Red Cross representative who chairs the peace negotiations, presents German proposals to Churchill, and commissions a psychological report on JL Sawyer.
Duke of KentMinor figure
British royal who disembarks from the flying-boat in Stockholm as part of the peace delegation, his presence initially kept secret.
Franklin K. ClarkMinor figure
Harley Street clinical psychologist who examines JL Sawyer informally and writes a confidential letter to Burckhardt about JL's psychological state.
Frank
Phyllidasupporting
Red Cross ambulance nurse sleeping on the stretcher shelf across from the dying Joe; her peaceful sleep anchors Joe's will to survive.