Algernon Mixlin
CRANKY BIBLIOPHILE
Algie is the living embodied stereotype of the English, tweed and sweater country gentleman. Except he's not in the English countryside and he's nothing close to a gentleman in any way but his impeccable manners. Since his arrival in town- as a writer and part time lecturer of English at the college- he's seemed quietly disgruntled on this side of the ocean, but he's really too polite to say so to any but the closest of friends.CRANKY BIBLIOPHILE
MAN OUT OF PLACE
Algie has never quite fit the molds he's tried to fit himself into. All his life he's striven to push himself into the role that others would need of him, whether it be son or student or athlete, and only as an adult carved a small niche of his own as a writer of supernatural crime novels. He's always been a little too polite, a little too proper, and even young was called 'an old man'. After his mother's death in his late twenties, Algie made a few bad decisions that not only got him on low-level radar of the British media due to the mild popularity of his writing, but also left him with a daughter (as well as her mother who wasn't and never would be his wife). He's since done his best to drop off of the radar, still quietly working and living with his father while becoming an absentee father in his own right. He found himself uncomfortably uninspired. Algie was invited to the college last year for a job and a friend in the town encouraged that the place itself might lend well to his writing.
He's once again a man out of place- the wrong side of the pond, surrounded by near-strangers, and seeking some sort of inspiration.
QUICK REFERENCE
Looking for something? A quick fact or a date or a recipe? Algie always seems to just have the right book out (or magazine in his bathroom). It isn't always immediately apparent, but if the effort is made to find the answer the right material seems to be easily at hand.ANYTHING ELSE?
Algie has been in Ashdown for a little more than a year. He's polite and courteous to those around town and known to students of the college as a rather lenient professor, but still keeps distance between himself and others. A few months ago, disappointed in the nature of the books at the college bookstore, opened his own bookshop in town with a much quieter atmosphere and a better selection. Still- similar to the owner himself, it's like stepping into a different time. No coffee shop attached, nothing too hi-tech, no comic section. -Prefers going by Algie or Alg.
-Algie is in his late forties, brunette with greying temples, and living in tweed. He has very green eyes and always wears glasses. He's got the paunch of single life and middle age- too much lazy food and beer. He has an influence album here.
-He secretly feeds neighborhood stray cats but keeps no pet of his own.
-He has an apartment over his bookshop (called Bibliophile).
-He likes a good cuppa and a good pint.
-He becomes flustered easily when things don't fall into an expected pattern. This makes him fun to tease or rile up.
-He's more bark than bite.
-He's old fashioned, often commenting that gentlemen are a dying breed.
-He has trouble with anything beyond basic technology (he can work a cell phone and the internet for basic everyday tasks but thats it).
-Change is difficult for him.
