Robert Laundry

A hustler and brother of Del.

Early Life[]

Born in London as the younger brother of Del, he lived most of his life in poverty never being able to get a Christmas present. While Del did due to good behaviour, he never did due to his antics which involve nearly burning down the house, trying to sell his brother Del with an ad and stealing all of Del's toys. While Del wanted to protect people, Robert became devious and soon became involved in the criminal scene. He manages to become a partner with Isaiah in Club Flamingo as well as his pimping business. He has a steady girlfriend while he continues to hustle money in order to get more money.

He eventually leaves the business of Club Flamingo and has a steady job much to his girlfriend Alison's relief.

Some of the schemes and scams he had been involved involves Robert getting people to invest in protecting the endangered flying penguins, to fund the amnesia society which they forgot their address so he kept the spoils until they remembered, to invest in his funeral parlour which saw those paying large sums of money prior to their death and then no funeral post their death and paying for the nursing for pregnant female seahorses.

The Tales of Grasmere Valley Novels[]

Volume 7[]

However when Alison dumps and he loses his steady job, he has to return to his hustling ways and he goes to Grasmere Valley in order to live and get the money back from Isaiah who stole his money. This is rather hard however with Isaiah now in prison.

The Tales of Grasmere Valley at Christmas 4[]

Robert kidnaps Lona Surville's foster children Mark, Ben, Serena and Reuben and holds them ransom in order to have presents. Del, Adam Robinson, Ivan Dontos and Widow Margaret take the presents which the town has given in a lorry to place them at the church as he has requested and to free those he had kidnapped. As Robert sees the presents in the church he places them in the lorry so he can drive away. But as he does that he tries to see where those he had kidnapped are which he had place in boot but the students are freed by Del, Adam Robinson, Ivan Dontos and Widow Margaret and it turns out that none other than Robert Laundry is the kidnapper who is in fact Del's brother! Del had never revealed this before as Robert is a crooked and someone he is ashamed of. Robert reveals he did this because he never got a gift at Christmas but Del remarks that Robert was always badly behaved and so didn't get gifts and he would steal Del's gifts when he was younger. But as Robert discovers they had rescued them, the lorry which Ivan didn't put the handbrakes which had the presents placed in them by Robert begins to roll down the hill much to Robert's delight and everyone else's shock, which had the presents of the entire town rolls down the hill and destroyed Maccabee Tagger's house! Robert is spared jail in exchange for community service. As it hurtled down he begins to have a change of heart as he wonders if people will die and with him begging to not go to prison and him pleading to do community service instead which as it is Christmas, Del decides to do that with his brother but Adam complains about such a course of action.

The Tales of Grasmere Valley at Christmas 5[]

His attempt at hijacking all the town's presents was referenced by Gary Robinson.

Volume 13[]

The incident of the kidnapping by Robert Laundry of Lona's children is referenced.

The Tales of Grasmere Valley at Christmas 10[]

When Tom Cotton and Darlene Cotton on Christmas day have their wedding re-enactment, he is among those watching the wedding. Bridgette Parry, Taffy Parry and Louisa Parry are also there, with Bridgette and Taffy in particular fighting over who should have the bouquet hoping to get married off with them having their eyes on Jon Lothario as a potential spouse. As Bridgette and Taffy keep bickering over who will catch it and who would have what man, Louisa has lost all hope of finding a potential spouse. In the end it turns out the one who caught it was Jon Lothario but while he is now open to marriage which he hadn't been before the event, he is taking his time thinking things over and thinking whether he will become a Christian and so rejects bot Bridgette and Taffy's advances. She had also saying why she deserves the bouquet talks about how she was scared for life for giving her present to Robert Laundry back in The Tales of Grasmere Valley at Christmas 4. Robert realised how much it affected her and clearly having feelings for her apologised for what he did after all those years and gave her a present he forgot to give back which is from Widow Margaret who has since passed away. It was a plastic flowers clearly getting something from her house as a throw-away gift to Bridgette, but Bridgette is very touched by this, she ends up holding hands with Robert, who could be embarking on a relationship.

Volume 49[]

He moves away from Grasmere Valley at the end of Volume 49.

What's Going On in Grasmere Valley? (Podcast)[]

Episode 194 Don’t Forget the Baguette[]

Wilma Timber goes on how she hate how she had to give up her present due to Ivan Dontos for Robert Laundry in order that Lona Servile's foster children be freed only for it to be destroyed when the lorry goes down. Nanny Prescot reminds her she had called them cuter than Brad Hewitt and Anna Hewitt's son Joel Hewitt when he was dying of cancer. To this Wilma remarks how while they are cute, she didn't feel they were that cute for her to give up her present for them to be freed.

Episode 200 The 200th Episode!!![]

Nanny Prescot talks about Robert taking the lorry which is full of presents which ends up colliding with Luigi Tagger's house.

Episode 207 Who's On First?[]

Bridgette Parry references him when watching the ball game and Nanny Prescot's wants to find out who is on first base. Bridgette remarks she only went to first base with him as they held hands but the relationship hadn't gone any further since that time at Christmas.