John Blunden
Fictional character
John Blunden was a successful thriller writer who divided his time between his flat in Dagmar Terrace, Islington and his villa in the hills above Nerja, Andalusia. At this period in the mid-1970s Charles, who had not yet established himself as a poet, was also living in Islington. The two very different writers get to know each other in the King’s Head on Upper Street with Blunden becoming something of a mentor to Charles. When Blunden discovers he has a terminal illness, he makes Charles his literary executor. He also asks Charles to finish his latest book, the lugubriously named “Last Knockings”. At the point at which the action of the novel begins Charles has yet to complete the book, even though he has benefited handsomely in the meantime from the royalties from Blunden’s earlier books.