Our Evenings

Dave’s mother, Avril, had him after she returned from Burma, where she worked as a typist in the governor’s office and had a brief affair with a Burmese man who was involved in politics. Avril raises Dave in the small market town of Foxleigh. As a single mother with a child of multiple heritages, she is sometimes shunned by other women in the town. Avril is a dressmaker, and Dave thinks she is very creative. Avril does an excellent job raising Dave, and there is great affection between the two of them. She provides him with the stability and love he needs and fully accepts his sexual orientation.

Avril has few friends in the town. When Dave is 13, Avril acquires a new client, Mrs. Esme Croft. Eventually, they go into business together, and then move in together, sharing Esme’s much larger home. Dave understands that his mother and Esme are romantic partners, which is later confirmed when they start sharing a bedroom. As an openly gay couple who model a committed relationship—something unusual in the 1960s—Avril and Esme create a happy family and an example of a possible future for Dave.

Avril’s decision to pursue her relationship with Esme, whom Dave sees as “a funny, domineering, self-indulgent and immovable presence” (391), estranges Avril from the rest of her family: Dave’s bigoted uncle Brian cuts Avril and Dave off when he learns about her living with Esme. That this strengthens rather than destabilizes the nuclear family shows Avril’s calm and steely reserve: She is determined to be true to herself and to quietly make her own way in life, no matter what others might think. She shows toughness and determination, and she and Esme prove to be partners for life—an example of an established gay couple who are the counterpart of Dave and Richard later in the novel.

Mark is a wealthy philanthropist and supporter of the arts. He funds the Hadlow Exhibition scholarship that allows Dave to attend Bampton and later partially funds the Terra theater company that Dave joins. Dave is greatly in his debt but also experiences Mark as a father figure.

Mark is a good-natured, charming, courteous man who, at the time of his death, was married happily to Cara for 70 years. Dave is 13 when he first meets Mark; he immediately identifies the older man as a positive presence. He says that he has “silky brown” hair, a “thin and decisive” mouth, and “large and kindly” brown eyes and that he “g[ives] off something specially reassuring, a sense of fairness” (20). Mark is modest and does not seek the limelight; it is rumored that he even turned down a peerage and knighthood. Meanwhile, Cara is an artist. When Dave first meets her when he visits Woolpeck for the weekend as a boy, Cara is already aware that their son, Giles, is a bully, though Dave denies this and tries to remain on best guest behavior.

Dave and the Hadlows remain in touch on and off for a period of over 50 years. It is through his occasional visits to the Hadlows that Dave gets exposed to the privileged, opulent life of the English upper classes. Cara is appreciative of Dave’s success as an actor and often asks him about Giles, whom she doesn’t feel that she understands. She acknowledges that both her children, Giles and Lydia, were “difficult teenagers” (9), in contrast to Dave. Cara also thinks that she and Mark were not good parents, although Dave tries to reassure her that that is not true. Mark has a falling out with Giles, whose values are different from those of his father, although no specific reason is ever given for the estrangement. To Dave, Mark is an example of a well-lived life. At Mark’s funeral, Cara tells Dave that “Mark was always so proud of [him], and interested by all [he] did” (8).

Giles is the son of Mark and Cara Hadlow. He goes to the same school as Dave, and their paths cross at various points throughout the novel, such as at the old boys’ reunion and other social occasions. Giles acts as a foil to Dave—a character who is the opposite of another character and, as a result, points at their contrasting qualities. Unlike Dave, Giles is born into upper-class wealth and privilege, which gives him a sense of superiority and entitlement. Giles’s unpleasant nature is apparent from the first chapter, when he bullies Dave as a boy. Giles’s cruelty and lack of empathy consistently contrast with Dave’s sensitivity and emotional availability.

Giles is ambitious and always has a sense of where he wants to go in life. Through his wealthy, upper-class family, he has financial and social connections that Dave lacks, becoming a member of the Conservative Party government during the Thatcher years in the 1980s. At the Bampton old boys’ reunion, Giles feels that he is the most important person there and makes much of the fact that someone referred to him as “Prime Minister in waiting” (382). Giles later becomes minister of the arts, a position for which he has no aptitude, never having taken an interest in literature or music. Dave thinks that Giles is hypocritical, pretending that he has the best interests of cultural organizations at heart while supporting budget cuts that reduce what these organizations can offer. Giles also becomes a leading voice in the Conservative Party faction that opposes Britain’s membership in the EU. This makes him unpopular in Dave’s circle of friends. Dave’s mother, fearing that the Brexit campaign might succeed, says to her son, “To think we could all be at the mercy of your terrible friend!” (30).

At some point, Giles falls out with his father, for unknown reasons. Dave thinks that Giles’s ruthlessness and self-promotion make him the opposite of everything Mark stood for. Even Giles’s mother repeatedly expresses veiled consternation about how Giles has turned out. When she is in her nineties, she says to Dave, “I think perhaps he always had a taste for power, yes, and punishing his fellow man” (10).

Mr. Hudson is a 36-year-old schoolmaster at Bampton. He is a Cambridge graduate and teaches English. Dave also twice refers to him as Roland, although he never addresses him by this name. Mr. Hudson, one of several father figures that the fatherless Dave adopts, hosts the school record club in his study, and Dave, who is secretary of the club, stays behind after the meetings. He and Mr. Hudson listen to classical music on the gramophone and discuss it afterwards. Mr. Hudson, who has wavy, brown hair that is going gray at the edges, also acts as a referee for school rugby matches. Dave develops an attraction to his teacher that the other boys tease him about, but Mr. Hudson always remains proper in his dealings with the boy. He sends him postcards from his vacations, signing them “GRH.”

Raymond, also known as Ray, is the hard-nosed, left-wing artistic director of the experimental theatre company Terra. He has thick, gray hair and wears a workman’s cap. Much older than Dave, Ray becomes another in a series of father figures for Dave. Ray promotes the idea of a democratic rehearsal process, but in practice, it is Ray’s word that is final; nevertheless, Ray casts Dave and Hector in Shakesperean roles that typically would not go to actors of color. He coaches Dave in how to interpret his roles, and he is often critical, but Dave learns from him. Ray enjoys being antiestablishment and developing radical takes of plays both old and new that highlight issues such as race or colonialism; however, Terra must rely on the establishment for its success, as evidenced by the importance of a good review in the Guardian and in the financial support of the Hadlows. Dave thinks that Ray is a demanding genius who gets results.

Hector is a young, good-looking, and very talented Black actor born in Liberia. Hector, who is five years younger than Dave, is also a member of the theater group Terra. When he and Dave act out a particularly intense scene together, Dave feels like he has fallen instantly in love with Hector. In contrast to Dave’s openness and friendliness, Hector is somewhat remote and taciturn: He is serious minded, chooses his words carefully, and has an “air of caution, and forethought” about him (338). After they begin a relationship, Dave leaves Chris to be with Hector. It is the first serious romantic relationship of Dave’s life.

Hector’s parents are both white, as shown in a photograph, but although Dave hopes that that will create a bond of shared complex heritage between them, Hector makes no further comment about this to Dave. Dave becomes conscious of Hector’s disappointments and self-doubt, but Hector often overcomes his misgivings in a wave of confident and decisive action. Like Dave, only more so as a Black man, Hector has to put up with racism; in one particularly upsetting incident, a fellow actress assumes that Hector is hired help.

Hector is known for having a strong stage presence; as an ambitious actor, he first gains small roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and then lands a movie role in New York. He and Dave drift apart after Dave declines to go to New York with him. Much later, after his relationship with Dave is over, Hector attains the heights of his profession, but it is notable that as a Black man, he has to leave England and go to Hollywood to accomplish this.