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William Beech
William Beech, the protagonist of Good Night, Mr. Tom, is a London boy who is evacuated to the English countryside at the beginning of World War II. His abusive mother Mrs. Beech beats him…
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Tom Oakley
Tom Oakley is an outwardly curmudgeonly, antisocial widower living in the rural English village of Little Weirwold. After his wife Rachel and infant son William died of scarlet fever, 40 years before the story takes…
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Zach Wrench
Zach, a London child evacuated to Little Weirwold in September 1939, bears the full name Zacharias Wrench, which he finds deeply embarrassing. Though culturally Jewish, his parents are theologically liberal, and he knows some Hebrew…
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Carrie Thatcher
Twin to Ginnie, Carrie is a freckly, redheaded girl from Little Weirwold. Whereas Ginnie wants to be a wife and a homemaker, Carrie is a stubborn, independent intellectual who loves to read and despises…
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Mrs. Beech/William’s Mother
Mrs. Beech is William Beech’s physically and psychologically abusive mother. A thin, dark-haired, paranoid woman, she regularly beats William with a belt, calls him sinful, and terrorizes him with stories of hell. When government officials…
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Get the entire Good Night, Mr. Tom LitChart as a printable PDF.
George Fletcher
Son of Mrs. Fletcher and Mr. Fletcher, George is a Little Weirwold boy about William Beech’s age. Though his mother forces him to invite William blackberry picking at the beginning of their acquaintance…
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Ginnie Thatcher
Like her twin Carrie, Ginnie is a freckly redhead about the same age as William Beech. Unlike intellectual Carrie, however, Ginnie is more interested in domestic chores and flower collecting than in books…
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Mrs. Hartridge
Mrs. Hartridge is a young, pretty schoolteacher in Little Weirwold on whom William Beech has an innocent crush. Toward the end of William’s first schoolyear in Little Weirwold, she goes on maternity leave and gives…
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Geoffrey Sanderton
Geoffrey Sanderton is a talented painter and a veteran of the World War II battle Dunkirk. While in London, he survives a bombing that kills his parents, his fiancée, and several of his close friends…
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Nancy Little
The chain-smoking, trousers-wearing wife of village doctor Dr. Little, Nancy Little somewhat shocks conservatively raised William Beech when he is getting to know her. Her wry, no-nonsense, yet caring persona endears her to many…
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Rachel
Rachel was Tom Oakley’s wife, a playful and artistic woman, who died of scarlet fever along with her and Tom’s infant son William about 40 years before the novel takes place. Her death devastated…
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Minor Characters
Miss Emilia Thorne
The librarian in Little Weirwold, Miss Emilia Thorne is a brisk yet kind woman who helps Tom Oakley tutor William Beech in reading and directs a series of children’s plays in which William, his friend Zach, and other village children participate.
Dr. Oswald Little
Dr. Little is the village doctor in Little Weirwold and husband to Nancy Little. William Beech’s best friend Zach, another evacuee from London, is billeted in the Littles’ household.
Mr. Peters
Mr. Peters is the vicar in Little Weirwold. His homey, welcoming approach to Christianity—he holds interdenominational services and invites anyone to come talk to him or his wife—contrasts with Mrs. Beech’s fire-and-brimstone religiosity.
Mrs. Fletcher
Mother to George Fletcher and wife to Mr. Fletcher, Mrs. Fletcher is a Little Weirwold resident who knits various articles of clothing for William Beech on commission from Tom Oakley.
Mr. Fletcher
Father to George Fletcher and husband to Mrs. Fletcher, Mr. Fletcher helps Tom Oakley dig his bomb shelter.
Lucy Padfield
Lucy Padfield is a young girl who develops an obvious crush on William Beech, making him embarrassed and uncomfortable.
The Deptford Warden
The Deptford Warden, whose given name is Sid, is a civilian volunteer in Mrs. Beech’s London neighborhood who helps Tom Oakley locate and rescue William Beech after Mrs. Beech ties him to a pipe in a closet and abandons him.
