Blanche Haggard

In the novel Absent in the Spring, Blanche Haggard (current married name unknown) went to school with Joan Scudamore. She was popular and well brought up.

At the age of 21 she fell in love with a married veterinarian. Since his wife refused to divorce him, he started to drink. Instead Blanche married a man named Tom Holliday and they had two children, Len and Mary. Tom wanted to be a writer an left his position at an insurance firm. The family hit hard times, and finally Blanche left her family for a man called Johnnie Pelham. After ending her relationship with Johnnie she met a man named Gerald.

When Joan encountered her in the Near East, she looked aged and was married to a man named Donovan and living in Baghdad. She was aquainted with Joan's daughter Barbara and her husband.