Crow but leaves to join John Geard. He is a somewhat depressed womaniser who carries a flame for Mary Crow but marries Tossie Stickles, after she becomes pregnant. Owen Evans, a Welshman, obsessed student of Welsh mythology, mystic, antiquarian, and a friend of John Crow. He has strong sadistic urges, and is tempted by an anonymous pornographic book. He is writing a book on Merlin, the magician of Arthurian legend. Mat Dekker, the town vicar. He is also wary of Geard's new religion and is also described as being an enemy of the anthropomorphised sun. Sam Dekker, the vicar's son. He carries an on-and-off affair with Nell Zoyland, wife of Will Zoyland, and goes through several spiritual conversions during the course of the novel. According to Morine Krissdóttir, "Sam is the virtuous Perceval of medieval myth; the Fisher King is this story Christ himself". Persephone Spear, wife of Communist leader Dave Spear and longtime mistress to Philip Crow. Mad Bet, (Bet Chinnock) a bald, witch-like madwoman who encourages Finn Toller to commit murder. She is identified with the Grail Messenger. Finn Toller (alias, Codfin), who accidentally kills Tom Barter when he attempts to murder John Crow. Edward Athling, a farmer-poet who creates the "libretto" for the Glastonbury Pageant. Red Robinson, a "cockney communist, who was always plotting troubles and strikes in Philip's factories. Red hates Philip Crow and plots, with fellow communist Dave Spear and philosophical anarchist Paul Trent, to establish a commune in Glastonbury, along the lines of the Paris Commune of 1871. Paul Trent, a solicitor from the Scilly Isles of Cornwall, who plans to set up an office in Glastonbury. He is a philosophical anarchist. Publication history A Glastonbury Romance was first published by Simon & Schuster in New York in 1932 and in London by John Lane in 1933. Subsequently, cuts were made to the 3rd impression of the Lane edition, following a libel suit in 1934 by Captain Hodgkinson, the owner of Wookey Hole caves. along with an apology. There were two further impressions with the apology and cuts. When Macdonald reprinted the novel in 1955, further cuts were made, including the deletion of eight pages from the end of chapter 8: "Wookey Hole". Subsequent editions, Picador 1975, Outlook Duckworth 1996, and Penguin 1999, were photocopied from the 1955 edition. There is a full details of the cuts in Paul Cheshire's essay, "A Glastonbury Romance: