England, 20 mi from the sea.

Pip has no recollection of either of his parents; he is more than twenty years younger than his sister. Five brothers died in infancy between them: Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger. He is known to himself and the world as Pip because his "infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip". The opening scene of the novel shows Pip in a graveyard paying his respects to the graves of his parents and brothers. He says he is small