To Say Nothing of the Dog

Time-travelling historian from 21st-century Oxford, severely time-lagged from repeated drops into bombed Coventry Cathedral; dispatched to the Victorian era to correct a temporal incongruity.

Ned's colleague sent back to last week's Coventry to retrieve cathedral records; romantically involved with Warder.

A dog present at the Coventry Cathedral search; chases a cat through the ruins and becomes the recipient of Ned's time-lag-induced philosophical soliloquy.

In London chasing a false lead about Underground tunnels; coordinates car transport for Ned and the bishop's bird stump to the consecration.

Arrives soaking wet reporting a completed mission involving a frozen pond and 'number six'; revealed to have been retrieving Victorian kittens for a gene pool project.

Oxford physicist who explains the theoretical dangers of parachronistic incongruities and rails against Lady Schrapnell's misuse of the time travel program.

Harried technician trying simultaneously to extract Carruthers and bring Finch through the net; computes return slippage as three hours eight minutes

Oxford researcher who briefs Dunworthy on Fujisaki's theoretical framework for parachronistic incongruities and their possible self-correction.

Victorian young gentleman whom Ned meets at an Oxford railway station; invites Ned on a river journey to Muchings End; Ned (mis)interprets him as a planted contact.

Terence's large dog; serves as ballast, disapproving observer, and inadvertent chaos agent on the river journey.

Lady Schrapnell's naive new hire on his first drop; marvels at seeing a live cat (extinct in his era) and embodies uncritical enthusiasm for the project.

Coventry Cathedral's verger present during the 1940 search; weeps over a found sand bucket; used as a foil for time-lag symptoms.

Terence's elderly classics tutor; rescued from drowning; obsessed with refuting Professor Overforce's determinist theory of history through endless historical examples.

Ned's partner who assists in the deduction, searches newspapers, accompanies the visit to Mrs. Bittner, and accepts Ned's implicit proposal at the consecration.

Professor Peddick's rival; espouses a determinist, population-based theory of history; pushed Peddick into the river after being pulled out by him.

Charming young man interested in theosophy and Tossie; attended séances in Oxford; a threat because his name begins with 'V' not 'C.'

The Merings' butler, revealed to have eloped with Tossie after contradicting her taste at Coventry; distinguished by his refusal to flatter.

Tossie's Persian cat, the source of the temporal incongruity; repeatedly escapes or is endangered and then recovered, apparently drowning in the capsizing before reappearing at the séance.

Has eloped with Baine the butler; her letter explains the romance began when Baine contradicted her taste at Coventry and then threw her in the river and kissed her.

Author of Three Men in a Boat encountered on the Thames with his two friends and dog Montmorency, not yet knowing he will be famous.

Runs the Waterloo-model simulation that confirms the self-correction pattern and later flags a residual slippage anomaly suggesting a further incongruity.

The Chattisbournes' enormous pregnant cat, whose condition Ned nearly blurts out in company

Con artist posing as a medium, exposed by Baine finding her equipment; flees in the night after being warned about the Psychic Research Society.

The curate who lets the group into the closed cathedral and shows particular attention to Tossie, potentially the 'Mr. C' of Tossie's diary.

Head of the Cathedral Flower Committee in 1940 who, upon noticing the bishop's bird stump missing from the rubble, wrote a letter to the editor accusing someone of advance knowledge of the raid, thereby threatening Ultra.

Stout man on the train platform who dismisses poetry and fate, prompting Ned's reflection on historical resilience.

Elderly woman who stole the bishop's bird stump from Coventry Cathedral during the 1940 Blitz to preserve her husband's faith; hid it in her attic for decades; confesses to Ned and Verity.

Researcher in the early Oxford time-travel lab; sympathetic to Lizzie but explains the political impossibility of tourist drops.

Jim's colleague; reports that the cautious head of the history faculty Lassiter is blocking all drops by demanding exhaustive slippage analyses.

Relentless patron who receives the bishop's bird stump at the consecration, pronounces it hideous, and immediately announces further retrieval projects enlisting Ned.