Bill Arkwright was a spook, featured as a supporting character in multiple Wardstone Chronicle novels.
Summary[]
Bill served as John Gregory's apprentice for five years.
Before becoming a Spook, Arkwright worked as a Military Gunner, manning large guns similar to the ones used in the Battle of Pendle Hill. During this time, he served in a war, as a soldier for the British Army.
A spook in operation in Caster, Bill Arkwright was one of The Spook's few apprentices to survive. He was in charge of training Tom to make him more apt in battle in the book: The Spook's Mistake. Bill had his own set of "demons", namely alcohol which he called 'demon drink'. Bill Arkwright was the Spook for the other side of the County who makes his first appearance in The Spook's Mistake.
Tom was sent to him so that Tom could learn the physical side of being a Spook's apprentice and learn things that John Gregory could not teach him anymore. Bill was a drunkard and couldn't control the urge to drink, mainly because his parents could not be sent to the light and remained in the world in the form of spirits. It is later found out that The Fiend had bound them to the Earth.
Arkwright's ways of teaching seem hard and aggressive, but they soon come in handy, especially when Tom comes to save him after he is captured by Morwena, a water witch. He was the Spook of the North, and later on with, the help of Tom and Grimalkin, Bill manages to set his parents free.
After that his mood seemed to lift and he became a happier man. He lived in a mill surrounded by a moat full of salt to keep enemies from the dark away.
The Dark Assassin[]
In The Dark Assassin, the final book in the Starblade Chronicles (A New Darkness Series in the US), a being known as a "Tupla" is made to think it is Bill Arkwright. It's job is to retrieve the Starblade and give it to the Kobalos. It dies when Tom Ward calls it a Tupla, and it melts into a pile of rotting flesh.
Personality[]
Bill appears to be hard and ruthless, but he is far more calm and friendlier when sober. It is also implied that he often holds himself responsible for things that are out of his control, when during The spook's stories: Witches he drinks and blames himself for the death of a boy killed by a worme.
Appearance[]
He is described to not quite be as tall as John Gregory, but sturdier and with a wiry build. He also has a closely shaven head that doesn't have a single hair growing out of. He also has a scar going down his left cheek caused by Morwena hooking her claw through it. Like all spooks, he has green eyes and is left handed.
Biography[]
Tom Ward[]
Wrath of the Bloodeye[]
The Selkie[]
Hunting Morwena[]
Capture and Rescue[]
The Fiend and Arkwright's Parents[]
The Banshee Witch[]
The Banshee's Curse[]
Conquering the Ordeen[]
Sacrifice and Death[]
In the midst of the assault on the Citadel in Greece, Arkwright is killed in a sacrifice so that the Spook, the Witches, Tom and Alice can escape. He was killed by a dark entity, at the end of the battle at the Ordeen.
Afterlife[]
Appears as a ghost, seemingly summoned by Bony Lizzie, to save Tom and bring the dogs back under his control.