Ellis Judd

Ellis Judd is the son of Len and Dora Judd, and lives his entire life in Oxford, working for the same car repair shop from the time he is a teenager, into his mid-forties. Ellis' life is marked by a series of tragic events: the first one occurs when Ellis is a teenager, and his mother Dora passes away. Later, when Ellis is about 40 years old, his wife, Annie, and his best friend, Michael, both pass away when they are driving together and are killed in a car accident. In the interim, Ellis has largely given up on his dreams of becoming an artist, which was his inspiration as a teenager.

For about five years following the death of Annie and Michael, Ellis is absorbed in a deep melancholy, and is almost exclusively depressed. Ellis' mood begins to dramatically improve, counter-intuitively, when he breaks his arm in...