Major Prosper Cain

Slow Read | Character List | Further Resources

This is a plot synopsis for Major Prosper Cain, a character in AS Byatt’s The Children’s Book. This resource supports the slow read and book guide. Details are updated as the read-along progresses.

Special Keeper of Precious Metals at the South Kensington Museum, Prosper Cain lives on-site as well as at his Elizabethan manor house, Iwade House, in Kent. He has an eclectic, undiscerning taste in interior decor and an interest in fakes. He entertains Olive Wellwood and offers her ideas for her books. When his son, Julian, presents Philip Warren, he inspects the boy’s sketches and has him fed. Olive Wellwood invites Prosper Cain to her midsummer party at Todefright.