Vanessa Polk
A friendly and charming young girl, Miss Polk visits the castle in A Pelican at Blandings, having befriended Connie on a boat over from America. The daughter of financial emperor J. B. Polk, he of the banks, railroads, mines etc., would always be welcome at the castle, and Connie encourages her friend the Duke of Dunstable the woo Vanessa. It later emerges that she is in fact J. B. Polk's secretary, her father being P. P. Polk of Norwich, once valet to an American millionaire who met his wife, then a housemaid at the castle, during a visit with his master and later moved to the U.S. with her, becoming a restaurateur.
Vanessa worked her way up the ladder to become the richer Polk's private secretary, helped by the coincidence of her surname, and a longing to see the castle her mother had spoken of so often led her to dissemble to Lady Constance to get an invitation. During her visit, she is approved of by Lord Emsworth, who thinks she has sound views on pigs, and also by Wilbur Trout, an old fiancé of hers who comes to admire her strong independent nature. She elopes with Trout after an abortive attempt at burglary, prompting an all-important letter of proposal from Dunstable.
Read more about this topic: List Of Minor Blandings Characters
Famous quotes containing the word vanessa:
“Vanessa wanted to be a ballerina. Dad had such hopes for her.... Corin was the academically brilliant one, and a fencer of Olympic standard. Everything was expected of them, and they fulfilled all expectations. But I was the one of whom nothing was expected. I remember a game the three of us played. Vanessa was the President of the United States, Corin was the British Prime Minister—and I was the royal dog.”
—Lynn Redgrave (b. 1943)