A young woman with tomato-red dyed hair, we first meet Flick Purdue at a CORE (Community Olympic Resistance) meeting that Strike attends in his search to find Billy Knight. According to the pamphlet Strike receives, Flick is listed as an “Anti-poverty campaigner/CORE Activist.” Flick describes herself as “pretty active in the labor movement” and is a member of the Real Socialist Party, which she describes as a “proper community-based campaign.” Flick takes an immediate dislike to Strike, whom she views with contempt at being ex-army. 

Flick is the girlfriend of fellow activist, Jimmy Knight. Filled with frequent arguments, jealousy and a lack of monogamy on both sides, their relationship is tumultuous, at best. While undercover with Flick and Jimmy, Barclay learns that Jimmy would “be happy tae get shot of her” but believes Jimmy is keeping her around for some unknown reason.

Flick doesn’t have a relationship with her parents, who are divorced and both lawyers (she specifically says that her mother is an Employment Lawyer). Flick explains that she doesn’t see any of her family because they don’t like Jimmy or her politics. When asked if her parents are Tories, Flick says they “might as well be.”

Robin later goes to work undercover at a Wiccan shop in Camden (where Flick works part time) and attempts to befriend Flick and obtain information. It is during this time where Robin learns more about Flick’s life, her relationship with Jimmy Knight and their connection to the Chiswell family.