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Illustrated portrait of Philippa and Gavin Croft-Parker

A character in The Swimming-Pool Library

Philippa and Gavin Croft-Parker

Will’s sister and brother-in-law, whose family life contrasts with his bachelor freedom.

What they want

Family stability and Rupert’s safety.

The book

Cover of The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
The Swimming-Pool LibraryAlan Hollinghurst, 1988

Queer freedom in 1980s London meets class, power, loneliness, and the lives that came before it.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Philippa is Will’s sister, Gavin her archaeologist husband, and Rupert their son.

Their conventional domestic life contrasts with Will’s leisure.

They keep him attached to the respectable Beckwith family structure.

How the book draws them

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

  • DomesticTheir responsibilities contrast with Will’s drifting life.
  • RespectableThey inhabit the family’s conventional public world.
  • Protective parentsRupert’s disappearance becomes an urgent concern.
  • Professionally groundedGavin’s archaeological work contrasts with inherited leisure.

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