| Andrew Price | |
| Aliases: | Arf, Peanut |
| Age: | 16 |
| First appearance: | Page 12 |
| Last appearance: | Page 498 |
| Family: | Simon Price, Ruth Price, Paul Price |
Andrew Price lives in Pagford, in Hilltop House. As the book progresses, we see Andrew's friendship with Fats tightening and then loosening, and his career introduce him to his love interest, Gaia and acquaintance Sukhvinder. Andrew is evidence that everyone suffers, no matter what class or race you are, suffering verbal and physical attack from his abusive father.
Outward Appearance[]
Andrew is sixteen, with vivid acne that earned him the name "Pizza Face" from his Father. He has brown hair and an average build, though Samantha notices that his job of lifting and carrying at The Copper Kettle has paid-off, making him more muscled.
Family[]
Andrew is the son of Ruth and Simon "Si-Pie" Price. Simon constantly abuses Andrew and his brother Paul or "Pauline", physically attacking them and Ruth, giving Andrew a black eye when he suspects that Andrew revealed information about the stolen computer to Fats. Simon bullies Andrew about his acne, his "laziness"/unemployment, and refuses to give him any more pocket money or fund his cigarettes. Ruth overlooks Simon's abuse, claiming that he just worries about his sons. It's clear that she is trying to hold the family together, but Andrew has come to resent her passivity. He is angry at her for her naiveté when is comes to his father's true character. He is much better than Ruth at reading his father's moods and responding accordingly, however he rarely intervenes out of fear of more abuse.
Friends[]
Andrew's best friend remains, for a good part of the novel, Fats Wall who sees Andrew as "authentic". They often share cigarettes and joints together in the Cubbyhole, and watch porn together. They discuss Simon, Fats disliking him since Simon made him pee himself when he was a child. Fats admires Andrew when he uses SQL injections to hack into The Pagford Parish Council website and posts defamatory messages about Simon. As Andrew becomes closer to Gaia, his love interest and Sukvinder in his job in The Copper Kettle, and as Fats sinks further and further into a depression at home (due to the arguments he has with his adoptive parents and the news that Andrew is moving to Reading), the two teenage boys are distanced. Fats looks for ways to hurt anyone else, snogging Gaia despite knowing Andrew's strong feelings for her.
Andrew falls in love with Gaia when she moves to Pagford, admiring her from behind on the school bus and staring at her whenever she was around (which she notices). He is delighted to hear that her boyfriend from London is going out with someone else, and finds great pleasure in his hours working next to Gaia and getting to know her.
Personality[]
Andrew appears self-conscious about his appearance, spending hours deciding what to wear and even going as far as to experiment with his mother's foundation after an angry outbursts of acne appears on his face the morning of his first day's work at the Copper Kettle.
After Andrew posts messages about Simon on the parish council website, he feels guilty about his father having been made redundant. Although this guilt continues for his mother and Paul, who have also suffered from the redundancy, it dissolves for his father, who gave him several more beatings afterwards. At the end of the book however, we see Andrew making an internal commitment to making things right with his father.
Although Andrew finds Fats' jokes and derision amusing at times, he is often uncomfortable when he considers the effects they have on their victims. He is in general less outgoing and brave than his friend, but this may be for the best, as Andrew has much more self-awareness and compassion than Fats.
Career and Future, Andrew signs up for a job at Howard Molllison's new café, The Copper Kettle where, to his delight, his relationship with Gaia Bawden develops. Besides the small café job and waiting at Howard's 65th birthday party, there is no obvious career prospects for Andrew in the novel.[]
Near the end, we discover that Andrew is leaving Pagford and moving to Reading (he had previously expressed a wish for an asphalted, broken-windowed and graffiti-ridden locale) where Gaia says she can meet up with him when she is visiting her father. It seems, by the end, that Andrew is in for a brighter future, making plans about visiting London on the weekends..