Alice Mellings
Alice Mellings is a Communist. She has formed the CCU and goes with her friend Jasper to join a squat at Number 43 in London. The group is aimless so she takes control of getting all the approval from the Council for residence and getting the electricity, water, and gas turn on in the house. She cleans up the house and yard so that the police will not have a reason to harass them and the neighbors will not complain. Alice takes on a mother role for the group getting money to pay for everything that they need and making the house livable. Because of her middle-class background, Alice knows how to speak to people in authority and how not to make trouble for the group. She sometimes feels an outsider to the group, since she is not invited along for demonstrations and spends her time cleaning and managing their home. Because of her proficiency, Alice is seen as more of a leader to the group to outsiders than anyone else in the group. Alice's maternal and caring instincts often contradict her other side, which is reckless and selfish.
Jasper
Jasper is Alice’s friend who wandered into her life and formed an attachment. He cannot take care of himself and uses Alice to get what he needs. People do not like him because he does not respect Alice and gives a vibe of mistrust and rebellion. Alice loves him and wants to be near him, but neither wants a physical relationship. Jasper is a homosexual and leaves Alice to go indulge in this lifestyle for days, but always returns to her. She is like a mother to him. Due to his violent attitude and posturing, authority figures do not like him and he has been jailed several times.
Bert
Bert is the leader of the group at Number 43. He is not taken seriously by the other members and most of them have left when Alice and Jasper arrive. Bert is not a good leader and does command authority. This is why he and Jasper’s attempts to elicit support from the IRA and Russia for their group is rebuffed. He wants his group to be part of something bigger but does not have the drive to make it happen.
Pat
Pat is a member of the small group that lives at Number 43 when Alice and Jasper arrive. She is in a relationship with Bert.
She does not take the group seriously. She feels the members are just play-acting. Pat is serious about her political leanings and breaks off her ties with Number 43 and breaks up with Bert to pursue a more strict and productive radical lifestyle.
Dorothy Mellings
Dorothy Mellings is Alice’s mother. Alice and Jasper stayed with her for four years. She felt she had to take her daughter in and in doing so she loses her home when her ex-husband will not pay for it anymore. He is having financial issues and cannot maintain two homes. Dorothy has to move to a tiny apartment and cannot make her daughter understand that it is because of her and Jasper that she had to move. Dorothy came from a working-class background so does not have an issue with her new surroundings. She is tired of dealing with her daughter and her revolutionary ideas and asks her not to visit her again.
There may be some linkage between Dorothy Mellings and Doris Lessing herself. Not only does the name sound similar, they were about the same age when the novel was written, also both have had poor upbringings, and both previously held communistic views. However, Dorothy Mellings also seems to be Lessing's vessel in the novel to speak her thoughts to Alice. This is especially clear in the last scene where Dorothy and Alice meet in Dorothy's new apartment, and also in Alice's memory of when Zoe and Dorothy had their fight.
Cedric Mellings
Cedric Mellings is Alice’s father. He owns a publishing company that is having hard financial times. He is hurt that Alice steals from him and cannot make her understand that he cannot just give her money whenever she needs it. He refuses to support Alice anymore.
Mary Williams
Mary Williams is a member of the Council. She helps Alice to get Number 43 on the Council listing so that it will not be demolished. She makes a deal with Alice to let she and her fiancé live at the house so that they can save up money for a nice place of their own.
Theresa
Theresa is a friend of Dorothy Mellings. Alice uses their relationship to get money from her. Theresa does not like Alice’s lifestyle and does not want to support her, but does give her money because of their past relationship.
Roberta
Roberta is a member of the group at Number 43. She is Faye’s partner and caregiver. She makes sure that Faye takes her pills and soothes her when she has a breakdown.
Faye
Faye is a member of the group at Number 43. She has violent tendencies and takes violent turns. She had a rough childhood and due to this has mental issues and attempts suicide. Faye is seen as unstable and the other occupants of Number 43 tiptoe around her. She dies in the bombing that the group organizes when the bomb goes off too soon. Her death was seemingly not an accident, but a suicide since Faye set the timer that made the bomb go off early.
Jim
Jim occupied the Number 43 before the Communist began their squat. They want to throw him out, but Alice will not let them. He comes active in the group, before Alice helps him get a job at her father’s publishing company. When he is fired for theft (a crime that Alice committed), he leaves the house and no one knows what happens to him.
Joan Robbins
Joan Robbins is a neighbor to Number 43. She does not like the squatters that have taken over the home. She likes when Alice comes and cleans the house and grounds. Alice keeps a pleasant relationship with her to make her group accepted in the neighbor so that the neighbors will not complain to the police about them.
Anthony
Theresa’s husband. He does not like Alice and does not think Theresa should help her. Alice only comes around when she wants something and he does not like her mooching.
Philip
Philip is a contractor that the group contacts to help get Number 43 in order. His girlfriend has just thrown him out so he asks to live in the house. The other members are reluctant, but Philip joins the CCU and attends some demonstrations with them. Philip is not a strong man and people see him as weak. Due to this, they take advantage of him and do not pay him for jobs or accuse him of shoddy work so that they do not have to pay him. After one such experience, Philip storms out of the house. Alice finds out later, that he has been hit by a car and is in the hospital. He dies from his injuries.
Reggie
Reggie is Mary Williams fiancé. He agrees to move into Number 43 so that they can save up for their own place, but does not like the other occupants of the house. He limits his time around them.
Andrew
Andrew is an occupant of Number 45, which is the neighbor to Number 43. It is believed that he has ties to Russia. Bert and Jasper go to him for advice. Alice sees him as a respectable leader and more serious in the Communist cause.
Monica Winters
Monica Winters is a young woman who lives in Council housing with her husband and baby. Where she lives is small and not cared for well. She wants to move into Number 43, but is run off by Faye.
Muriel
Muriel is an occupant of Number 45. Alice does not care for her and sees her as spy on Number 43. Muriel is a favorite of Andrew and is tagged to go to school to become a Communist spy.
Felicity
Felicity is Philip’s ex-girlfriend. She tells Alice of Philip’s accident and takes her to his funeral.
Jocelyn
Jocelyn becomes an occupant of Number 43 when Number 45 is abandoned by its occupants. She builds explosives. She builds the explosive that they attach to a car to explode near a hotel.
Carolyn
Carolyn was an occupant of Number 45 who asks to move into Number 43. She and Bert begin a relationship. Carolyn does not agree with timing the bombing during the day when innocent people may be harmed. She does not take part in the bombing.
Gordon O’Leary
Gordon O’Leary comes to Number 43 when Alice attempts to not take delivery of packages that he has delivered to their house, since Number 45 is no longer occupied. He is upset by her refusal and wants to take possession of the boxes. She tells him that they threw them in the city dump. He is upset and promises to come back to the house.
Peter Cecil
Peter Cecil comes to Number 43 to speak to someone about the occupants of Number 45. Alice is preoccupied with attending the bombing and makes plans to meet him for lunch the next day. Only after the bombing, does she contemplate on who Mr. Cecil could be and why he wants to talk to her about Number 45. She believes him to be with MI5 or another government agency.
