Elvira Fortescue

In the novel A Pocket Full of Rye, Elvira Fortescue (née Ramsbottom) was the first wife of Rex Fortescue and the mother of Percival, Lancelot and Elaine. She was also the sister of “Aunt Effie”. She was a Victorian romantic, and one of her favourite things to read was Idylls of the King (hence the names of her three children).

She was older than Rex, and Lancelot says that she always seemed "incredibly old" to him. He says that she was nearly fifty when Elaine was born.

She doesn’t appear in the novel, as she had already passed away, but she is mentioned.