This week’s topic for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is: “May Flowers (This is a companion to the April Showers topic from last month. Interpret however you’d like: books with flowers on the cover, colorful covers, books set in springtime, books where flowers/plants are a common theme, titles with flower names in them, characters named after flowers, covers that are as pretty as flowers, books featuring gardens, etc.)”
There were lots of possible options this week! I’ve previously listed books with flowers in the titles, so this time I decided to go with characters named after flowers.
1. Lily by Rose Tremain is a dark novel about a young woman, Lily Mortimer, accused of murder in Victorian London.
2. Daisy Muir in A Pink Front Door by Stella Gibbons is one of those people who always finds herself trying to solve other people’s problems!
3. A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier tells the story of Violet Speedwell, a single woman whose fiancé was killed in the First World War.
4. Heather Badcock is poisoned during a party in Agatha Christie’s The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side and it’s up to Miss Marple to find the murderer!
5. Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd is a 1950s seaside mystery and features a puppeteer, Professor Poppy, who runs a Punch and Judy show.
6. Not the name of a specific flower, but flowers in general – Flora is one of the two children (the other being her brother Miles) who appear in Henry James’ classic Gothic novella The Turn of the Screw.
7. The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal has two characters with flowery names – Iris Whittle and her sister Rose, who both work at Mrs Salter’s Doll Emporium, painting faces on china dolls.
8. In The Key in the Lock by Beth Underdown, Ivy Boscawen is trying to come to terms with the death of her son in the trenches of the Western Front, bringing back memories of another boy who died under suspicious circumstances thirty years earlier.
9. I loved The Ghost Writer by John Harwood, about a man who discovers a collection of ghost stories written by his great-grandmother, Viola Hatherley. It seems to be out of print now, which is a shame.
10. One of my favourite books as a child, Watership Down by Richard Adams, features several rabbits named after flowers, including Dandelion and Bluebell.
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Have you read any of these books? Which other characters with flowery names can you think of?
She Reads Novels 
Excellent idea! 🌸💐
Thanks! I enjoyed putting this list together.
Gorgeous, especially Dandelion and Bluebell!
Watership Down was a good choice as there were multiple characters with flowery names!
I’ve only read the Adams and the James, but I do like the range you’ve come up with here! If I had my wits about me I’d suggest a few flowery characters to add to your list but my brain’s a bit addled after a stimulating few days away from home – sorry. 🙂
Thanks! I enjoyed putting this post together but it was more difficult than I expected and did take a lot of thought. I hope you enjoyed your trip away.
We were quite closely aligned with our ideas this week. I had Lily in my list too but for a different reason.
Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s?
The nearest I can get to a male name that is remotely like a flower is William (Sweet William) so you could have Elizabeth Strout’s book Oh William!
Yes, it was difficult to come up with any male names to include, so I’m glad I remembered Professor Poppy. I didn’t think of Sweet Williams!
Helen, I love your take on this week’s topic! I think the only one I have read, from your list, is The Turn of the Screw. Other flower named characters I know of are Lily, Petunia and Lavender (Harry Potter), Katniss and Primrose (Hunger Games), and I believe all female hobbits (Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit). 🌼😊
Thank you. I thought of including the Harry Potter characters, but I decided to stick with books I’ve actually reviewed on my blog. I forgot about the female hobbits!
Ooh fun spin on the topic. I haven’t read any of these but The Doll Factory and The Key In The Lock are both pretty high prioriy on my TBR. I also love the sound of The Ghost Writer so its disappointing to hear that it seems to be out of print now.
I loved The Doll Factory – Elizabeth Macneal’s books are always fun. I remember having more mixed feelings about The Key in the Lock but liked it overall. Actually, I’ve had another look and I think The Ghost Writer is still available for kindle but not paperback, along with John Harwood’s other books, The Seance and The Asylum, which I enjoyed as well.
Have you read The Witchfinder’s Sister by the latter author? As I have that one on my TBR too so maybe I’d be better off starting there 🤔 ooh thanks so much for letting me know. I’ll have to look those ones up as well.
Yes, I enjoyed The Witchfinder’s Sister. It’s my favourite of Beth Underdown’s two books and I think it would be a good place to start.
Okay I’ll switch things around and try that one first then. Both had interesting premises so I was kind of torn on where to start anyway 😂