HARRY ALLEN

 

Harry Allen is commonly what we all recognise as a ‘rough diamond’, and a ‘tough nut’ when the situation arises. Harry is, to date, my favourite character in ‘The Hurt’ trilogy. I thoroughly enjoyed creating him.

 

Harry first makes his appearance in the second part of the trilogy – ‘The Healing’, and also features in ‘The Scars’.

 

A gold tooth, shaved head and an earring in one ear…that’s Harry, and he certainly lives up to the image. The lovable rogue, who is lawyer Simon Bank’s gopher. Simon gives him some, at times, strange and underhand tasks…and mostly they involve breaking the law. But what Simon likes most about Harry, is that he’s loyal, discreet and more than accustomed to keeping secrets for his ‘boss’.

 

Harry has such deadpan facial expressions that even those who know him well, often don’t have a clue whether he’s joking or not. He’s also a bit of a foodaholic, especially when it comes to pizza. Even though he’s well-fed at home, he’s not averse to stopping off for a take-away during his working day. Another habit he’s held on to since his childhood, is dropping his aitches and using ‘we was’ instead of ‘we were’. People who use the ‘Queen’s English’ would cringe at some of his words, yet he is a most loveable character. He comes across as quite ‘gruff’ in his manner, and yet his thoughtfulness knows no bounds. Another of Harry’s finer points is he will unashamedly apologise when he knows he’s done wrong (often due to Simon’s poor judgements).

 

My protagonist, Helen, was extremely surprised when she discovered that Harry is a happily married man with twin boys at university and also a little girl who is the apple of his eye. Harry’s wife holds a very important position as managing director for a public limited company and he considers himself to be a very lucky guy to have her in his life, despite his risky position working for Simon. Until she knew more of his personal life, Helen would have labelled Harry as ‘single’.

 

*****

 

HARRY’S DISLIKES

 

• Men who treat women badly.

• The criminals he frequently deals with.

• Being hungry.

• Shopping wife his wife.

• Cars lacking in performance.

• Having to queue anywhere, especially when he's hungry.

• Parking and lack of convenient parking.

 

HARRY'S LOVES

 

• His wife and family.

• Good food.

• His job, dodgy though it is at times.

• Holidays in the sun.

• Nice people.

• Cats

• Cars...the faster the better.

 

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