Clovis is Winsome’s husband and Shirley’s father. An immigrant from Barbados, Clovis meets and marries Winsome not long after her arrival in England. The marriage gives Winsome safety and comfort in the early and overwhelming days of her new life in the UK. Despite Winsome’s protestations and the hostile racism they in the south of England, Clovis stubbornly insists that the family move to the countryside, where he finds work as a stevedore and spends his nights at the bar. When Winsome later gives Clovis an ultimatum, Clovis agrees to move back to London. Clovis never finds out about Winsome and Lennox’s affair.
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Clovis Character Timeline in Girl, Woman, Other
The timeline below shows where the character Clovis appears in Girl, Woman, Other. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3: Winsome
Winsome watches Lennox and her husband, Clovis, head out to fix up a fishing boat. Winsome admires Lennox from afar. She’s attracted...
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...on to her own daughter. Rachel asks Winsome to tell her about how she and Clovis met. Winsome is taken aback, accustomed to hearing about her grandchildren’s lives but never being...
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Winsome flashes back in time and tells her story. She meets Clovis at a West Indian gathering shortly after she’d moved to London. He’d been in England...
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...house. They work 12-hour shifts in a fertilizer factory and save money for a house. Clovis wants to move to south-west England, to be near the sea and work as a...
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When they arrive in the seaside town of Plymouth, Clovis can’t find work. The people in town are poor and don’t want to give work...
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...Winsome insists they go back to London where there are other people of color, but Clovis is determined to give Plymouth another chance. He says that once they have kids, living...
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They settle in Plymouth, Clovis becoming a longshoreman unloading cargo from ships and Winsome having three children in three years....
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...by teachers and students at the school. At wit’s end, Winsome asserts herself and tells Clovis she is taking the children back to London with or without him.
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Mid-story, Winsome is distracted by Lennox and Clovis headed back from fixing up the boat. She thinks Shirley likely married Lennox because he...
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When Shirley, Clovis, and the children move back to London, life settles into a predictable and secure routine....
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...notices that Lennox’s kisses linger on her cheeks too long. She doesn’t want to betray Clovis or Shirley but admits that if he made a move she couldn’t resist. One day...
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