The Recurring Cast
Character guide · 7 books · 2000 to 2022

Maggie O'Farrell

Literary and generalLiterary fictionFamily and book club

Maggie O'Farrell writes literary novels about families, love and loss. Hamnet imagines the life of Shakespeare's wife, Agnes, and the death of their son; The Marriage Portrait follows a young duchess of Renaissance Ferrara.

Best estimate, compiled from series guides, publisher descriptions and reviews where available, and from memory otherwise. Book level only, not chapter level. Minor includes cameos and brief references. Each book carries a confidence rating in its tooltip. Her novels are standalones; leads are charted per book.

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Who appears in which book

Click a name to follow that character from book to book, or a book title to see its cast.

LLeadMMajor·MinorHas a note
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Maggie O'Farrell books in order

Each series in publication order, with its lead characters. Where the story runs in a different order, switch to Story order. Crossover books are marked and listed under their main series. Use My books to track what you have read.

Novels

7 booksLiterary fictionFamily and book club
  1. 1After You'd Gone2000With Alice Raikes · Set in EdinburghBuy on Amazon
  2. 2The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox2006With Esme Lennox · Set in EdinburghBuy on Amazon
  3. 3The Hand That First Held Mine2010With Lexie Sinclair · Set in LondonBuy on Amazon
  4. 4Instructions for a Heatwave2013With Gretta Riordan · Set in LondonBuy on Amazon
  5. 5This Must Be the Place2016With Daniel Sullivan · Set in DonegalBuy on Amazon
  6. 6Hamnet2020With Agnes · Set in Stratford-upon-AvonBuy on Amazon
  7. 7The Marriage Portrait2022With Lucrezia de' Medici · Set in FerraraBuy on Amazon

Characters

7 recurring and key characters, with the book each one first appears in.

Leads