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Hugh Apiston is a male peculiar capable of commanding and protecting the many bees that live in his stomach. He is one of Miss Peregrine's peculiar children.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

In A Map of Days, he said that his father once sent him to a workhouse, where he had to make rope all day.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children[]

He is first seen in the dining hall. Hugh also went to the beach with Emma and some of the older kids. Later, Emma catches him and Fiona "snogging each other's faces off". After that encounter Hugh later notifies Emma and Jacob to report to the home due to Miss Avocet's arrival. When Horace and Enoch were teasing Olive and Claire, Hugh told them to leave them alone and sent his bees after them. Hugh was very concerned about Miss Peregrine after she had been captured, shouting at Enoch when Enoch was saying that their situation was hopeless.

Hollow City[]

In the beginning of Hollow City, Hugh is in Jacob and Emma's boat and assists in the rowing. He brought with him a doorknob that was blown off of Miss Peregrine's home. Unfortunately, he loses the memento when their luggage falls off of Bronwyn's boat.

He goes to Miss Wren's menagerie to hide and has to leave his beloved Fiona and Claire behind because of how sick Claire was. T Unfortunately, Hugh never said a proper good bye before Fiona fell off a cliff during the wights' invasion there, leading to her presumed death.

Hugh loses most of his bees when he commands them to sting on separate occasions: a group of wights (disguised as World War II British Home Guards) at an unknown bunker and civilians who mistook the peculiars as air bomb children evacuees at a London train station. He is left with a solitary bee, Henry, who sadly has a broken wing.

In the first event Hugh, by Jacob's account, summoned enough bees to block out the sun. Hugh had arrived at the nick of time to save his friends and Gypsies from the wights. Though he had planned to throw exploding eggs, he found that the nearby flower field had a lot of bees. Hugh was able to swarm the wights and even sting them inside their bodies through their mouths.

Library of Souls[]

Hugh is taken to the Devil's Acre with the rest of the captured peculiars and helps fight against the wights at the end of the story. We dont see much of him as it's Emma and Jake mostly.

A Map of Days[]

The Conference of the Birds[]

The Desolations of Devil's Acre[]

Description[]

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Hugh at the dinner table with Claire, Jacob, and Enoch.

Physical[]

In the graphic novel, Hugh is drawn wearing a bee keeper's net hat and a pair of goggles/sunglasses. He has black hair that is slicked back and commonly sports a white shirt and suspenders, his overall appearance strongly resembling his photograph A Boy and His Bees from the collection of Robert Jackson. In the film, he is portrayed by Milo Parker.

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Film Poster with Milo Parker as Hugh Apiston

Personality[]

Hugh is very rash, and states his opinions very clearly. He is obviously proud of himself when he helps his friends in various situations. Hugh is very fond of Fiona. Hugh has an open mind to basically anything, and is very kind to all of his friends. He uses his abilities to aid the other peculiars, and is known to be very smart and witty at times. In TDODA Jacob notes that he is a "famously bad explainer of things."

Peculiarity[]

In Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders, Hugh is classified as an animal communicator (specifically bees). Bees live inside Hugh's stomach, that he protects and directs. Often, a few bees will fly out of his mouth each time he opens it. The bees only sting on command or when Hugh is upset. He can instruct any number of bees at a time, even using hundreds of them to attack. He controls them by imagining himself as one of them. While Hugh's peculiarity to control his bees is a useful weapon, the bees themselves are not peculiar. As all honeybees do, they'll die after stinging.

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Hugh (movie adaptation) peculiarity.

Aside from using the bees as a weapon, Hugh also provides shelter for his bees (in his stomach) and cares for them. He often pollinates his bees, usually using Fiona's flowers to do so. Hugh is very fond of his bees, and is heartbroken after using them to kill several wights and attack some civilians in Hollow City. He has also used his bees for spying, as he had one follow the wights that had taken his friends hostage. Hugh seemingly has named all his bees as well, as he refers to his sole remaining one-winged bee as Henry. He has to wear a beekeeping hat on at dinner to prevent them stinging people.

Like Olive and Claire, Hugh ate dinner at Miss Peregrine's under different circumstances due to his peculiarity. He eats under a large mosquito net at a separate table for just himself in the corner, most likely so that his bees do not interrupt the other children's meals.

Relationships[]

Fiona Frauenfeld[]

Hugh and Fiona are what one would call 'soul mates'. Not only do they get along, but their peculiarities also match well. Their relationship is an example of dramatic irony due to the joint connection between their abilities. Fiona posesses the ability to produce flowers (along with other vegetation) which attract bees (Hugh's ability to contain and control them with his body and mind).

The pair met when Hugh, looking for a place to let his bees pollinate, found her sleeping in a field of flowers after she was chased out of her village.

In Hollow City, Hugh is visibly saddened when Fiona volunteers to stay back with Claire in Miss Wren's Menagerie. The two share in an affectionate goodbye, with Fiona growing roses between them for Hugh's bees to pollinate. When they turn and catch the others staring at them, Hugh sheepishly cuts the goodbye short.

Near to the conclusion of Library of Souls, Hugh refuses to believe that Fiona had perished during her fight with the wights at the menagerie. He clings to the hope that she is still alive and wandering in nature. He hopes to find her and makes a lot of effort to, searching the Panloopticon during A Map of Days. The loss had impacted him deeply, causing him depression and a few outbursts, but he was still very hopeful of seeing her again when most others are doubtful. Such is the hope of true love.

Luckily, it turns out that he is right, and in The Conference of the Birds he becomes hysterical from worrying about her after learning that she is under the wights' mind control. Eventually, though, the couple is finally properly reunited, with Hugh initially refusing to let her go after having her in his arms after so long. In The Desolations of Devil's Acre Hugh stays with Fiona in Devil's Acre instead of going to Miss Tern's loop with Jacob and some of their other friends, and Jacob thinks it likely that Hugh would've tried to stop Fiona if she'd wanted to go on the dangerous trip.

Trivia[]

  • Hugh has a one-winged bee whom he named "Henry."
  • Hugh has discovered his peculiar abilities at age 5 while eating large amounts of honey and honeycomb when he "swallowed" a bee.
  • The inside of his body is a living beehive.
  • He not only has the ability to control bees, but can also sense their minds.
  • It is possible that he can control other Hymenopteran insects since hornets and bumblebees were also among the bees he used to kill the wights.
  • He makes an appearance in the first Hollow City book trailer.
  • In Ransom Riggs' post in his Tumblr account, on the peculiar calendar, Hugh's birthday is stated to be May 15.
  • In the book, Hugh eats at a separate table from the others, but in the film and graphic novel he sits with everyone else, beside Olive.
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