In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, Stephen Leonard Farraday, MP is an up and coming politician. He is married to Sandra, the daughter of Lord and Lady Kidderminster.
Stephen believes in a person's will, that what they will, they can do. As a child, he had "steadfastly cultivated his Will", knowing that he would get little help in life, except what he could get by his own effort.
He was small for his age, pale, quiet, and had a tendency to stammer. He was well-behaved, and caused little trouble around the house. His father described him as being namby-pamby.
Stephen's mother had married below her station, and regretted it. Stephen had felt a "puzzled incomprehension" about her, until he discovered that she was a heavy drinker of eau-de-Cologne. His father was a small builder. Stephen had little affection for his parents, and suspected that they felt the same way about him.
As a first test of his will, Stephen decided to master his stammer. He "practiced speaking slowly, with a slight hesitation between every word", and was eventually successful.
In school, he applied himself to lessons, believing that education "got you somewhere". He won a scholarship, and his parents were approached by the educational authorities. His father was persuaded to invest money in his son's education.
Stephen graduated from Oxford at age twenty-two. He had a "good degree, a reputation as a good and witty speaker, and a knack of writing articles". He had learned to overcome his natural shyness, and cultivated "an admirable social manner", which was modest, friendly, and had a touch of brilliance.
Stephen was "by predilection a Liberal", but realised that the Liberal Party was dead, and joined the Labour Party. However, he found the Labour Party less open to new ideas and more "hidebound by tradition". He won the approval of the Conservatives, who were looking for promising young talent.
Stephen contested a Labour constituency, and won by a narrow margin. However, he needed influence, in order to rise further, and began to consider getting married.
Stephen first met Sandra at a big reception at Kidderminster House. He spoke to her using a manner which was boyish and appealing. This was a manner which had been natural to him, and had since been deliberately cultivated.
After that first meeting, Stephen haunted the neighbourhood of Kidderminster House, so that he could meet Sandra again, and properly introduce himself. Eventually, he asked her to marry him.
Stephen and Sandra were married, and spent their honeymoon in Italy. They lived in a small house in Westminster, and Sandra later inherited Fairhaven Manor.
Stephen met Rosemary Barton at St Moritz, and fell in love with her. Two weeks after returning to London, he became Rosemary's lover. They met at a little flat at Malland Mansions, Earl's Court. He bought her a man's spotted dressing-gown, and she gave him the nickname Leopard, while he called her his Black Beauty.
For six months, Stephen did his work as usual, but was thinking of Rosemary all the time. Then, he began to think that he should not see Rosemary so often, and that they had been very reckless.
He later wrote to Rosemary, saying that they must end it all, and that he could not risk bringing unhappiness on her. He was concerned that Rosemary would tell her husband, George, about the affair. George would then divorce her, and Sandra would divorce him, causing him to lose the backing of the Kidderminster family. Stephen then realised that what he would mind most of all in that situation, was that he would lose Sandra.