1. Tony Hogan
1.1. Violent
1.1.1. pp 29: "One day he caught me watching him, turned, and gave me my first ever smack."
1.2. Apperance
1.2.1. Look pp. 29: "Tony had yellow-blond hair that he dyed once a month leaving the bathroom smelling of pissy ammonia" (...) He had a complexion the colour of Spam that mixed badly with bleached hair, and an earring with a dangling silver skull.
1.3. High-status in the criminal world
1.3.1. pp. 29: If they did'nt already know, he was the aberdonian king or at least Duke of thugs and drugs.
1.4. Drugdealing
1.4.1. Dopedealer pp. 31: "It's uncut like, so yeh can make a tidy profit with a wee bit of home economics(..)but for business or please just say the word and I can put yeh in touch
1.5. Racist
1.5.1. pp. 32: "It started with an earing; something that small. Insignificant even, unless the earing is a little swastika pinned through an ear."
1.6. Psycopath
1.6.1. pp. 64: "'Janie yeh cheeky thing. That's a giant ice cream. Tony Shrugged, sipped his drink. 'Come on, Iris, it's a treat.'" Shows he can be friendly
2. Nell
2.1. Black person pp. 40: "A woman walked towards me. She was the first black person I had ever seen who wasn't on telly."
2.2. From Aberdeen(pp 40)
2.3. Toenails, not polished but thick and yellow pp40.
2.4. Optimistic and believing in Janie - pp. 41: "She's good as gold now".
2.5. Janie likes Nell - pp. 45: "After that I decided to keep Nell a secret, I wouldn't tell me that that morning I had cried on Nells soft lap because I didn't want to go".
3. Doug
3.1. Poor but a good fella(grandma says)pp. 99: "poor as a pauper but a good fella, a good daddy for yeh finally, Janie."
3.2. Aggressive/angry
3.2.1. pp. 5 of 7 chapter 14: "Doug came in to the bedroom, picked up our portable telly, and threw it out the window."
3.2.2. Look - pp. 40: "Her skin was darker and shone like a brown, salty pebble held in your mouth for its smoothness before being spat into your palm(...)She was rounded and soft.(...)she looked strong, firm. She wore an orange dress and a long necklace of clicking
3.3. Drinks a lot/Alcoholic
3.3.1. pp. 6 of 7 chapter 14: "Doug didn't even look round, just poured another drink and said.."
3.3.2. pp. 1 of 6 chapter 11:".. and Doug spent the whole day at Sammy's. 'Helping him with a job'. Wich was the truth if the job was a full bottle of whisky and game of gin rummy."
4. Frankie
4.1. Caring
4.1.1. pp. 11: "Frankie leaned over to give her a kiss(...) Listen, yer going tae be a great ma. Member how yeh looked after me(to Iris)
4.2. Drugabuse
4.2.1. Frankie dies from his drugabuse
4.2.1.1. pp. 131: "I took his hand, a piece of dead meat."
4.3. Father figure to Janie
4.3.1. Father figure to Janie pp. 46: "Frankie opened his arms. "Come here kid" (...) Frakie looked at the carpet."I just wish id known and could've fixed it sooner.(About Tony's violence)
4.3.1.1. Frankie says can fix anything, so he is the go-to guy, if they have any problems.
4.4. Drugdealing
4.4.1. Dopedealer(pp. 31: "It's uncut like, so yeh can make a tidy profit with a wee bit of home economics(..)but for business or please just say the word and I can put yeh in touch"Frankie: "Aye, cheers, man. That'd be good".
5. Beth
5.1. Nice towards Janie
5.1.1. pp. 167: "The thing about Beth was that I never thought she was waiting to stab me in the back." "... she'd shout across the road, 'Oi, fuckface! Slag. Over here!' But there was always a smile with it."
5.2. Has a thight bond with Janie
5.2.1. pp. 167: "I suppose there was something safe about her. She told me secrets in her flat, deep voice, but didn't ask for any back."
5.2.2. pp. 176: "We're like family now, you an' me. Yeh know me better than my ma an' you. I sometimes wish we could stay on the beach together an' never go home at night', I told her."
5.3. Looks
5.3.1. pp. 167: Her body gave her away too. She could paint it and dress it, but it did'nt matter how many silvery scratches laced her arms or how much black scraped on the inside of her eyes, her body was soft and warm."
5.4. Gets pregnant
5.4.1. "You coyld hardly tell she was pregnant cause she'd always been a big girl, but you could just see the lads in the band thought she was sexy."
5.5. End their relationship on a good note.
5.5.1. pp. 207: "We said goodbye on a laugh."
6. pp. 28: "Iris, seriously are you sure about this? We can just get them tae bring over some booze and draw and have a wee bit party here? Not a chance(...) I hav'nae been out all week, and its fine. Denise said she'd nip through every hour or two."
7. Janie
7.1. Young Janie
7.1.1. Pretty baby pp. 1: "You did it sis! An' what a little beauty an' all."
7.1.2. Afraid, pp. 37: "Even after all these years I hadn't learned how to be brave." (Afraid of Tony.)
7.1.3. Likes attention, pp. 27: "My facourite word when he walked into our lives was, unsurprisingly and appropriatly, a joyful, sometimes frustrated, 'fuck!' I loved the attention that word would bring."
7.1.4. Ignorant, pp. 40: "You speak like my ma, but you're a blackie".
7.1.5. Ashamed, pp:" I felt my face burning, blotchy and pink with shame.
7.2. Old Janie
7.2.1. Releases herself from Ma in the end and moves to London
7.2.2. She gets pregnant and gets an abortion
7.2.3. Has accepted that the world is crap.
7.2.4. Janie is sad and confused.
7.2.5. Drugs, alcohol
7.2.6. Maybe she is to start a new life in London, breaking the social heritage
7.2.7. Cheeky
7.2.8. She lost her virginity at a young age
7.2.9. in the end she is determined to start a new life
8. Iris
8.1. She has temper - pp. 189: "You ungrateful little fuck. Yer nothing but a slapper even after all I did to bring ya up decent." Here Iris also believes that she has put Janie up decent - that she has done her job as a mother well.
8.2. Pp. 160: "But I'm getting there, Janie. Earning my own cash for the first time in years nerves or no."
8.3. She sometimes fails to be a caring mother
8.3.1. pp. 118: I'll take yeh to social services in the morning an Tiny too though they'll split yeh up and then I'll finally, Finally, get some fuckin' peace!"
8.3.2. Pp. 125: "Don't you fucking lecture me..."
8.4. She believes in fresh starts. She has hope. They move A LOT throughout the book, and its clear that Iris often and early gets into some trouble, but then holds on to the thought that there is a better place, and a better man for her. Clean slates.
8.5. Poor
8.5.1. pp. 132: "Ma didn't go to the funeral(Frankies). We didn't have money for coach fares."
8.6. Bad relationship with her mother.
8.6.1. Pp. 13: Ma stared down at her muddy plate of mixed food her lips set firm. "Well, I'm not doing it and yeh can't make me"(...) "while you're in my house yeh bloddy well will!"
8.6.2. Pp. 132: "(..)And ma said she wouldn't look that woman, grandma, in the face again."
8.7. Childish
8.8. Depression
8.8.1. Pp.
8.9. Drunk
8.9.1. Pp. 66: "(...) My lovely ice cream melt into a sad pool around the almost empty vodka bottle."
8.9.2. Pp. 132: "On the day she lit a candle on the windowsill instead, drank a full bottle of vodka, and fell into a disturbed twitchy sleep."
8.10. Stubborn
8.10.1. Pp. 38: "Don't fucking tell me what is best for my kid.
8.10.2. Pp. 118: "Don't you touch her! I'm warning yeh, I'm the grown-up here. I'm the ma!"
8.11. Brief moments of being a good mother
8.11.1. Pp. 126: "Ma loved us. She loved the smell of us, our chatter, the feel of our skin. She told us so."
9. Grandma
9.1. The book indicates that she hasn't been the best mother but still loved her daughter. (speaks about Iris): "Running off tae London and getting into God knows what. (...) you always were a nut job but if i ignored the gossip held my head high an I never loved you any less".
9.2. Had different men in her life while raising Irene.
9.2.1. pp. 13: "At least I could keep a man, someone for yeh all to call yer da.' 'But it wasnae one man, was it? It was thrre, an' what a fuckin' bunch of charmers an' all."
9.3. Misses the birth of her granddaughter.
9.3.1. pp. 9: "'What's so important that Ma couldn't come?' ........ 'Aw, ehm, bingo.'"
9.4. Negative responses towards her daughter. Always criticising her choices.
9.4.1. pp. 14: "Yer not fit mother an' anyone would tell yeh the same."
9.5. Kicks her daughter out of her house.
9.5.1. pp. 14: "Get out o' my fuckin' house then."
9.6. Tries to hurt Iris.
9.6.1. pp. 14: "You always were a nut job but I ignored the gossip, held my head high an' I never loved yeh any less" ..... "Yeh've never been a proper Ryan, yer nothin' better than a cuckoo in the nest."
10. Tiny
10.1. Real name is Tiffany pp. 119
10.2. Janie's wee sister
10.2.1. Afraid of Frankie
10.2.1.1. pp. 130 : "In bed tiny would curl herself into me, scared from the moans and pacing in the next room. Our Uncle Frankie made mutant thorugh the thin walls and night-time shadows."
10.2.2. Seeks comfort with her sister
10.2.2.1. pp. 122: "Tiny cried all night, because of the shouting from downstairs so I'd take her into my bunk with me."
10.2.3. Though
10.2.3.1. pp. 139: "Tiny was a though little bugger."
10.2.4. Aggreasive
10.2.4.1. pp. 135: "Tiny showed her bottom teeth, that was her worst face, and started swinging kicks at my shins with her red wellie. 'I'll get yeh, Janie, yeh fat cow.'"
10.2.5. Looks
10.2.5.1. pp. 139: "Almost five now Tiny Hadn't grown out of her stocky body and still had chubby legs with dimples at the knees. She had her da's messy hair, though black not blonde like his, and blue eyes with flecks of yellow. Everyone said she'd be a beauty when she'd lost her puppy fat."