A Question of Technique

One of the edits Jessica suggested was that I write the dialog for a couple of characters differently, as they spoke in a confusingly similar manner and each have sort of interchangeable British sounding names. They are, in fact, named the same as the Weasley twins. I didn't name them after the Weasley twins. They are named for the original Middlemarch characters on whom they are based. The only character from Middlemarch whose name I changed was Dorothea because, well, Dorothea.

I've been rewriting Fred and George a bit to make them less interchangeable, My Fred and George aren't equally impish, ginger twins.

That said, I've been toying with the idea of including a character sketch at the beginning of the book along with a family tree. What do you guys think of this? Like, at the start of a book you're met with a page that says:

Brooke Dotry: A recent college graduate who works at The March. She is very passionate about the environment.
Celia Dotry: Brooke's younger sister.
George Shaw: Their next door neighbor
Teddy Castings: A late middle-aged regular at The March. He has a relationship with Brooke
Etc.

I like these in a book because I think it's nice to be able to flip back in a book with a lot of characters and remind myself of who someone is when they haven't been in the book for a few chapters, or I've had to put the book down for a few days.

On the other hand, I'm afraid that I might be letting myself get away with something. My characters should be vivid enough that you don't forget who they are.

On the third hand, when I was watching The Wire, I found myself consulting the HBO character sketches kind of a lot, which had an unfortunately spoilery effect. It would have been nice to have a non-spoilery character sketch handy.

I'm on the fence. Does anyone have strong opinions on this kind of thing?

By the by, to any and all who've given me tips on getting published and forwarded names of editors, literary agents and publishers, thanks so much! I am compiling these and when I'm done with this next rewrite will be availing myself of all your kind help!