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A character in And Then There Were None

Vera Claythorne

The games mistress hired as a secretary, who was cleared at an inquest once and has never stopped hearing the sea.

What they want

To hold herself together, and to keep the memory of the sea and the boy where she has put it.

The book

And Then There Were NoneAgatha Christie, 1939

Ten strangers on an island off Devon, a nursery rhyme on the wall, and no detective coming to save anyone.

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At a glance

In the book
Secretary to Mrs Owen, by letter; a games mistress by trade
Charged with
The death of Cyril Hamilton, a boy in her care
Where she appears
Throughout; the last three chapters are hers

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Vera Claythorne is the guest the book stays closest to. She is young, capable, and hiding something the reader is shown in pieces from the first chapter: a boy called Cyril, a swim, a man called Hugo. She was a governess, there was an inquest, and she was praised for her courage. The record charges her with Cyril's death.

She is level-headed for most of the book, the one who notices the china figures going and the one who keeps count. As the numbers fall, the narration moves inside her, and what she remembers is the thing the book has been keeping from us.

How Vera Claythorne Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • The jobA games mistress at a third-rate school, hired by letter as a holiday secretary.
  • The inquestCleared of any blame in a boy's drowning, and praised for swimming out after him.
  • The countShe is the one who notices each china soldier gone from the table.
  • The nerveCool through the first deaths; the others rely on her, and Lombard admires it.
  • The seaweedA strand of seaweed hung in her dark room makes her scream, and the scream brings the others running while a death happens elsewhere.
  • The last chaptersThe book narrows to her, and her memory of Hugo and the sea comes back in fragments.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Vera let Cyril swim out to a rock she knew he could not reach, so that the man she loved would inherit; the man guessed and left her. On the island she shoots Lombard on the beach, walks back to the house, and finds a noose and a chair waiting in her room. Half in a dream of Hugo she hangs herself. She is the last of the ten.

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