BoM/TWS Message Forum

There's a line in today's chapter, "A College Application"  , that I feel a little guilty about putting in, because it changes how we think of Jamieson Hyde-White quite significantly:


Why? Well, it states that Hyde White isn't a scion of the British1 establishment, but rather someone that ascended to its ranks through ability. This is, of course, something that is perfectly possible, though individuals with a longer pedigree may well look down on the new arrivals as happens here with Reeves.

That said, if we look at the chapter "The Australis Company part one" , we can see one nascent part of Fane as being very much new money arrivals too. It's just a couple of hundred years later, their descendants aren't new arrivals any more.

So that leaves Hyde White, as exceptionally dangerous and competent as he is, and definitely one of the potential big bads that the TBoM/TWS stories can have, he's still never going to be any better than a middle manager at Fane. No wonder he looked so upset at the unfairness of it all in "Nine Lives" 

I got the idea after Seuzz explained to me that he had Francis Urquhart, from the original UK version of House of Cards, in mind as Hyde White's character model. While FU the character was very much an establishment figure, the actor playing him wasn't. Making Hyde white not quite as establishment as he appeared seemed like a neat idea.

And in case you are wondering where the title for this post comes from: I know my place  

Footnotes
1  I nearly said English here, but that's a whole other argument...