Mervyn Winstanley

Mervyn Winstanley was the abbot of St Hilda's monastery in the village of Crook Marsham.

When the Sentience manifested in December 1968, it appeared to the abbot as Jesus Christ. This made Winstanley open up to it emotionally, allowing it to feed on and kill him. (PROSE: Nightshade)

Behind the scenes

 * Although many readers noted the character's shared name with Winstanley from the television story The Dæmons, Mark Gatiss revealed via the authors notes in the eBook release of Nightshade that the character was named after the father of a friend and at the time of writing, he had not seen The Dæmons in years.