Lucy has joined us with a guest post, and publishers Meryton Press are offering an ebook giveaway to accompany the blog tour. Let’s look at the blurb and then I’ll hand over to Lucy for her guest post, which is an interview with the title character, Maria Bertram’s Daughter, Dorothea Rose.
%20S.jpg "Book cover: Maria Bertram's Daughter by Lucy Knight")
She could be mistress of
Mansfield Park. But is that what she wants?
An unwanted child—conceived in circumstances her mother would rather forget—Dorothea Henrietta Rose grows up solitary and neglected with her dissatisfied mother and unpleasant great-aunt Norris. Raised without the knowledge that her mother is her mother or that their occasional visitor, Sir Thomas Bertram, is her grandfather, she is forbidden ever to set foot in Mansfield Park.
Dorothea hopes for a happier life when sent away to school, but her difficulties are not over. She is obliged to make her way in the world as a governess and, thus, encounters human frailty, hypocrisy, good, and evil in her travels throughout England.
She meets the Crawfords—Henry and Mary (now Lady Drumroth)—and inevitably does the one thing she must not do: unwillingly makes herself known to the inhabitants of Mansfield Park.
* * *
Guest
Post – Character Interview with Dorothea Rose
Thank you, Ceri, for hosting me on my blog tour! I have written an interview with my heroine – I should warn you, she was quite hard to interview, as will become apparent. Here she is just after the end of the book, but the marks of her difficult childhood are still upon her and she is unwilling to open her heart, either to me or to anyone else. Always excepting those people she loves best, of course. I hope your readers will take Dorothea to their hearts. She is very close to mine.
LK:
[looking round] I really like your cottage. Would you say that this is your
happy place?
DR:
I have all I could wish for. After the storms of my early life, I have washed
up on a benevolent shore, like a piece of driftwood. I am content. I am not, I
think, someone who experiences wild happiness, it is not in my nature.
LK:
Why do you suppose that is?
DR:
I have been obliged to learn to be stoical. My childhood [sighs] was not an
easy one. I believe that perhaps I was once wild and impetuous, but it did not
serve. It always led to trouble. And even when I became an adult, I found I had
no agency. It is difficult for a woman to choose her own destiny.
LK:
But you are still capable of secret passion, perhaps?
DR:
Perhaps. I certainly love passionately. But that is private.
LK:
Would you call yourself a feminist?
DR:
No, because I do not know that word. But, if it refers to the “destiny”
question, I would say I am drawn to strong women who have found a way to live
as they wish, yes. I have met some in my life, I have been lucky in that
regard. I have also met women who have been powerless and have lost everything.
LK:
OK, this is getting a bit too serious. Tell me, what’s your favourite food?
DR:
[laughs] Soup.
LK:
Any particular kind of soup?
DR:
Almost any soup, so long as it is not like the soup we had at school. Every
time I have a delicious soup, it reminds me that I can have good things now.
LK:
Getting serious again, there, Dorothea.
DR:
I’m a serious person.
LK:
Not like me, then… tell me about that dress you’re wearing. I love it. What’s
that fabric called… poplin, is it?
DR:
It’s a very fine wool. Ideal for changeable spring weather, I find. I can add a
shawl if it gets chilly. It is my Sunday best.
LK:
Look, I’m getting a bit confused. I made you up, you know, I expected us to
have a lot in common, but it feels as if we are very different people.
DR:
Yes, I think we are. I believe I am what people like to call “very reserved.” I
have formed the impression that you are not reserved.
LK:
Good grief, no. The opposite, I fear.
DR:
Perhaps that is because the times you live in allow you to be so?
LK:
Yes, that’s certainly part of it… but, hey, I’m supposed to be interviewing you.
DK:
Yes, next question?
LK:
Would you say you have a gift for friendship?
DK:
Perhaps. I had not thought of it in that way. Certainly, I have many wonderful
friends and am blessed by their friendship.
LK:
So perhaps you are not so reserved in their company? You see, I’m trying to get
you to open up a bit.
DR:
It is not really in my nature to “open up” as you call it. There have been
times when I have been obliged, by necessity, to explain my unfortunate
circumstances to strangers, if that is what you mean by it.
LK:
Yes, I’m sorry about that. I did rather put you through the wringer, didn’t I?
DR:
I suppose you were obliged to do it, otherwise there would have been no story?
Am I correct?
LK:
Yes, there is that.
[Both
sit in silence gazing out of the window at the wonderful view. The silence
deepens, until it is broken by the sound of church bells]
DR:
I must go to church, now.
LK:
Oh, ok. Can I come too?
DR:
Not in those clothes, no.
* * *
Lucy
Knight grew up in Whitby, North Yorkshire, now a tourist town but until recently
a small and historic port which was known for shipbuilding, fishing (including
whaling) and having an important Abbey. During her life she has moved around a
great deal both in England and on the continent of Europe; she now lives in a
tiny hamlet lost in the French countryside with two rescue dogs, two rescue
chickens, an unknown number of bees and eight sheep.
Lucy
has two children and three grandchildren, all of whom live in England.
Lucy
has only recently begun to write historical fiction but she enjoys it so much
she can’t stop! Her background is in comedy and drama, so there will always be
some jokes and plenty of dialogue.
When
she is not writing, Lucy teaches English and French, and she love to take long
walks with her dogs during which she revels in the birds, butterflies, trees
and flowers which are so abundant in her part of France.
%20S.jpg "Book cover: Maria Bertram's Daughter by Lucy Knight")
Maria Bertram's Daughter is available to buy now in Paperback, Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
• Amazon US • Amazon UK • Amazon CA • Amazon FR • Add to Goodreads shelf
Giveaway Time
Meryton Press is giving away 6 eBooks of Maria Bertram’s Daughter by Lucy Knight. To enter, please use the rafflecopter linked below.
Note about comments: If you have any problems adding a comment please contact me and I will add your comment for you :)
Blog Tour Schedule - Maria Bertram’s Daughter
April
11 My Jane
Austen Book Club
April
12 So little time…
April
13 Babblings of a
Bookworm
April
14 From Pemberley to
Milton
April
15 Austenesque Reviews
April
16 The Literary Assistant
April
18 My Vices and Weaknesses
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The circumstances of her birth would certainly make her reserved in her behaviour
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed! It was lucky for her that she became slightly acquainted with happy families or she would have been lost. I do hope you will read all her adventures!
DeleteI feel really sorry for her. Not only is she born with a cloud of shame over her head, and in financially straitened circumstances, but with such unpleasant near relations as well. I can't imagine her having a happy early life.
DeleteWell that is interesting that she is a very different personality from her creature, but looks like she has a clear-eyed view of the world.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to her story. :)
Thank you! Yes, it was difficult to get under her skin at times. But still waters run deep...
DeleteI hope you enjoy the story, Sophia.
DeleteThis sounds interesting. Thanks for a chance to win a copy.
ReplyDeleteFingers crossed for you! (And everyone else too, of course...)
DeleteI hope you enjoy it when you read it Sheila.
DeleteThat was an interesting interview. However, I feel a certain amount of pity for Dorothea in her reservedness. I wish she had more spirit. Thanks for more insight into your story, Lucy. Thanks, Ceri, for hosting.
ReplyDeleteOh, she has spirit when she needs it! Thankfully...
DeleteThanks for stopping by, Suzan. I really feel for Dorothea. Being a child born into those circumstances can't have been easy.
DeleteLove the premise!
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear it! Hope you enjoy it when you read it.
Delete