Fleet is the Genius loci of the River Fleet and a daughter of Mama Thames. She appears as woman in her 30's, and is said to be built like a sprinter with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. [1] The Fleet River obtained its name from the fleetness with which its waters ran toward the Thames. Describing her build as a sprinter may be a reference to this speed.
According to Beverley Brook, Fleet is married to a fae and has got "like a gazillion foster kids".[2] The children are adopted.[3] She acts as foster mother to Not-Nicole.[4]
The Press[]
The river gives its name to Fleet Street which runs from Ludgate Circus to Temple Bar at the Strand. Fleet Street became known for printing and publishing at the start of the 16th century so that by the 20th century most British national newspapers operated from here. The term Fleet Street remains a metonym for the British national press.[5]
It is suggested that Fleet has some influence over the British media, in much that same way Lady Ty has influence in various British government ministries. For instance, Nightingale suggests Fleet could humiliate someone to death in the media when discussing the death of the jazz musicians.[6] When Peter meets her at the Tate Modern, she had been attending in order to review the show on BBC Radio 4.[7]
Dogs[]
Ziggy the Captain of dogs, named after David Bowie.
During her conversation with Peter at the Tate Modern, she states she has more dogs than she can handle herself. In order to keep them in line she has a captain of her dogs, a border collie with heterochromia called Ziggy.[7]
Fleet's affinity for dogs may stem from a poem by Alexander Pope in 1728:
‘To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams
Rolls the large tribute of dead dogs to Thames
The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud
with deeper sable blots the silver flood.’
indicating many dogs died in the river in earlier times.
Before becoming Fleet[]
Before becoming Fleet, her children had gone to the same school as Peter Grant.[1] It is unknown if these are the children Beverley talked about.
The Earlier Fleet[]
Before the Great Stink in 1858 there was a son of Father Thames called Fleet, who perished in a flood of filth and muck.[1]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Rivers of London
- ↑ Foxglove Summer
- ↑ The Hanging Tree
- ↑ The Loneliness of the Long Distance Granny
- ↑ Wikipedia contributors. (2018, September 19). Fleet Street. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 01:13, September 22, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fleet_Street&oldid=860322413
- ↑ Moon Over Soho
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Whispers Under Ground