 A long, lean, stringy man of repellent aspect, with a high forehead and ruminant eye, he has a strong pessimistic streak, and when drunk he tends to assert that he should by rights be heir to an Earldom (a long story, never told the same way twice).He falls in love with Claire Lippett, and despite worries that girls turn into their mothers, retires from the sea to help her and Mrs Lippett run a pub.A small weedy American, when we first meet him in "Sam the Sudden", Alexander "Chimp" Twist is sporting a small waxed moustache and operating from a fourth-floor office in Tilbury Street, opposite the Tilbury House office of Lord Tilbury.