Christina Courtenay Blog Story Detail

I'm very pleased to have been invited by Jane Jackson to take part in a continuing series of blog posts called "Meet My Main Character". It was started by Debra Brown, who is the Administrator of English Historical Fiction Authors, a great website for anyone interested in obscure bits of British history. Please click here for her original post.

Jane's latest book is Crosscurrents and her website is at www.janejackson.net - please go and have a look at her post about the main character of this novel which sounds brilliant!

My own main character:-

1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or historical?

My character is called Jago Kerswell and he is entirely fictional although I borrowed his surname from a Devon ancestor of mine as I liked it very much.

2. When and where is the story set?

The story is set in a fictional village on the south coast of Devon in 1781/82. The village is called Marcombe and is somewhere near Kingsbridge. It's part of a fictitious estate owned by Sir John Marcombe of Marcombe Hall (another imaginary character).

3. What should we know about him?

Jago is a smuggler and an innkeeper, but he's only taken to smuggling in order to help the villagers, who were very poor and struggling to feed their families before the extra income came their way. He's not married and happens to be half-brother to Sir John Marcombe - they share the same father but Jago is illegitimate. His mother was a gypsy, so he has a gypsy grandmother who tells fortunes and knows how to cast spells.

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Meeting Sir John's wife, Eliza, out on the cliffs one dark night totally messes up Jago's life. It turns out John has been mistreating her and in despair she wants to kill herself. Jago saves her, but the two of them fall in love which was never part of his plans. He knows there is danger in the stolen moments with her, but he discovers he'll take any risk to be with her, including submitting to one of his grandmother's spells.

5. What is the personal goal of the character?

His main goal until he met Eliza was to keep the villagers and his fellow smugglers safe and prosperous and to live a comfortable life on his own terms, beholden to no one. Once he meets her, however, things change. He begins to plan how to get her away from her brutish husband and perhaps for the two of them to emigrate to the Colonies. But there are things that stand in his way…

6. What is the title? Can we read more about it?

The Secret Kiss of Darkness. You can read more about it here.

7. When will the book be published?

The book was published in February 2014 so is available now as a paperback and ebook (all formats).

Thank you for visiting! The next Main Character blog post will be on Henriette Gyland's website on Tuesday 8^th July when she'll be talking about The Highwayman's Daughter.

Please also check out Tom Williams' Main Character from his novel His Majesty's Confidential Agent, which is part of this series of blog posts as well. You can find it here!

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