The Secret Keeper (2012) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

show spoilers

• Laurel Nicolson: The protagonist, a sixteen-year-old girl daydreaming of her first love and her ambitions at the beginning of the novel. A famous character actress as an adult.
• Dorothy Smithham Nicolson: Laurel's mother who possesses a secret.
• Jimmy Metcalfe: Dorothy's boyfriend in London during the Blitz. A gifted photographer.
• Vivien Longmeyer Jenkins: Dorothy's friend in London during the Blitz. Born in Queensland, Australia and sent to an uncle in Oxfordshire, England when orphaned
• Rose Nicolson: Laurel's kind and homely younger sister.
• Iris Nicolson: Laurel's vain, quarrelsome and loud sister.
• Gerald (Gerry) Nicolson: Laurel's brilliant and logical scientist younger brother.
• Henry Jenkins: Vivien Jenkins' handsome husband. He is a well-known author during the London Blitz and a key part of the secrets Laurel's mother is keeping.
• Daphne Nicolson: Laurel's sister who lives in America.
• Billy Baxter: Laurel's first kiss.
• Shirley: Laurel"s iorlhood friend
• Nella Brown: Little girl whose parents died in The Blitz. She was clothed in oversized clothes and tap shoes when Jimmy snapped her photograph. Because of his abandonment issues, Jimmy feels a connection and obligation to her.
• Dr. Tomalin: Vivien visits his hospital for children regularly.
• Grandma Nicolson: Stephen's mother. She runs a boarding house at Bournemouth near the sea. She is blunt and acerbic. She dislikes her daughter-in-law.
• Stephen Nicolson: Dorothy's husband. A kind, good, loving man who adores her and their family. After surviving WW II in the trenches, he enjoys their rural farming life.
• Mrs. White: Dorothy's landlady in London. She's all but blind.
• Janice Smithham: Dorothy's mother. She's a cowed woman.
• Cuthbert: Dorothy's brother
• Arthur Smithham: Dorothy's father. An accountant in a bicycle firm. He is stuffy and strict. He prides himself on his service to his firm. He arranges for Dorothy to get a job at the firm, which angers her. When she declines and leaves home, he tells her never to return.
• Caitlin Rufus: Dorothy's girlhood friend, Doctor Rufus' daughter
• Dr. Rufus: Caitlin's father. Administered psychological tests to Dorothy, and she felt exceptional afterward.
• Pippin: Vivien's simple-minded brother.
• Isabe Carlyon Longmeyer: Sister of Jonathan Carlyon and mother of Vivien.
• Mrs. Jennings: Their hostess for Smithham family seaside holidays.
• Claire: Laurel's agent.
• Kitty Ellis: Chaperoned Vivien on the voyage to England after Vivien was orphaned. They correspond for the rest of their lives. She left her private papers to New College, Oxford where she'd been a doctoral candidate.
• Mitch: Young man who interviews Laurel for a documentary film.
• Lady Gwendolyn Caldicott: Dorothy's elderly, crotchety, invalid employer. She owns a lovely home in Kensington, loaded with beautiful furniture, crystal, china and elegant clothing, the kind Dorothy aspires to own one day. She's a lonely, bitter woman, bedridden and overly fond of sweets. Dorothy is her companion.
• Penelope, Henny Penny: Lady Gwendolyn's sister
• Peregrine Woolsey: Lady Gwendolyn's nephew who stands to inherit her estate.
• Reginald Pemberly: Lady Gwendolyn's solicitor
• Constable the cat: The family cat of the Nicholsons
• Barnaby the dog: The family dog of the Nicholsons that first notices the stranger visiting the farm
• Katherine Barker, Kitty: Kitty stayed at Lady Gwendolyn's house during the war. She was a telephonist. She knew Dolly.
• Susana Barker: Kitty's daughter
• Jonathan Carlyon: Uncle to whom Vivian was sent when her family died. Stuffy and inattentive to Vivien, he fails to notice her fragility. Former schoolmaster of Henry Jenkins, he encourages her to accept Henry's interest in her.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Children don't require of their parents a past, and they find something faintly unbelievable, almost embarrassing, in parental claims to a prior existence.”

• “One of the things I have come to know most surely in my work is that the belief system acquired in childhood is never fully escaped; it may submerge itself for a while, but it always returns in times of need to lay claim to the soul it shaped.”

  Katy Ellis

• “Billy said she wasn't ever going to find the words to make them (her parents) understand. He said it was called the "generation gap" and that trying to explain herself was pointless, that it was like it said in the Alain Sillitoe book he carried everywhere in his pocket, adults weren't supposed to understand their children and you were doing something wrong if they did.”

  Billy Baxter

• “A true friend is a light in the dark, Viven.”

  Rose

• “But at the same time, Laurel had been thinking a lot about secrets, about how difficult they were to keep, and the habit they had of lurking quietly beneath the surface before sneaking all of a sudden through a crack in their keeper's resolve.”

  Narrator

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, Australia: Where Vivien was born and lived with her family until she was orphaned in 1929.
• Sufffolk: English county west of London, Laurel's childhood home and where Laurel's mother is currently in a hospital.
• Greenacres Farm: Noicholson family home and farm in Suffolk
• Coventry: Where Dorothy grew up, and where she lost her family during the Coventry Blitz.
• Campden Grove: Lady Gwendolyn Caldicott's home in Kensington, a district of London, where Dorothy served as Lady Gwendolyn's companion.
• University of Cambridge: Gerry's place of employment. She travels to Cambridge to enlist her brother aid in investigating her mother's WWII life.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Guilt and Conscience: One of the two primary characters believed that she was at fault for her entire family dying in an automobile accident.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Kate Morton (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR9619.4.M74 S43 2012c
• Dewey: Add the Dewey Classification.

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history