In the novel Absent in the Spring, Gerald is a man mentioned by Blanche Haggard in a conversation with Joan Scudamore at a rest house in a railway station in Iraq. Gerald was a man that Blanche met after ending her relationship with Johnnie Pelham, yet another one in a long line or relationships in what Joan felt was a "singularly unsavoury catalogue". According to Blanche, Gerald "wasn't much good, either".