'Coleridge received the Person from Porlock / And ever after called him a curse, / They why did he hurry to let him in? / He could have hid in the house. / It was not right of Coleridge in fact it was wrong / (But often we all do wrong) / As the truth of it is I think he was already stuck / With Kubla Khan. / He was weeping and wailing: I am finished, finished, / I shall never write another word of it, / When along comes the Person from Porlock / And takes the blame for it.' - How does Stevie Smith characterize Coleridge in these lines from her poem, 'Thoughts about the Person from Porlock'?

Who are the most memorable characters from fiction? All readers have a favorite, a person who seems as real as the people they see every day. In some cases, a character can seem even more real. Think of Atticus Finch, Scout, Huckleberry Finn, Scrooge - it can be hard to believe these people are purely the invention of their authors.