Character profiles: Who would you be?

Over the next few days, I’d like to introduce new readers to some of the key characters in A Motif of Seasons. As an author, I’m fascinated by the different aspects of human nature, so I’ve decided to pair the characters up to compare and contrast them. Here are the first two.

Exemplified by a typical mother/daughter adversarial relationship (which many of you will be familiar with from your own experiences), today’s pairing introduces Countess Elisabeth Mariette von Schellenhorst and her daughter Countess Victoria Elise.

Countess Elisabeth Mariette von Schellenhorst

Granddaughter of the famed Countess Arabella von Deppe (the lead character in The Music Book and Fortune’s Sonata), family matriarch and fierce keeper of an old music book full of past family secrets, she is a formidable and duplicitous woman with a secret of her own. Now in her twilight years she considers the time may have come for Herzberg to let go of its much vaunted past but lacks the courage of her belated conviction to say so.

Countess Victoria Elise

Elisabeth Maritte’s daughter and only child, she is refined, striking and – in sharp contrast to her mother – unconventional and opinionated, leading sometimes to verbal duels. A brilliant pianist and a challenger of the past, she takes risks to her mother’s horror. Her love of music and her intense sensuality are her principal weapons to fulfil her ambitions; and she shares her great grandmother’s belief that the centuries old notion of the weaker sex is a malevolent means by men to enforce continued female inequality.

The question is: which would you rather be?

A Motif of Seasons is published in paperback and ebook edition on 18 November 2016. You can pre-order the book here.