ZENmama asked Jacqueline Winspear:

Hello Jacqueline, I am so thrilled to have this opportunity, thank you! My question is about Maisie: While she has some insecurities and makes some decisions fueled by those emotions, she seem to have no actual human vices (yet is still very complex/developed!). Is her character designed to reflect the morés of women in her class of British society at the time, or is her "self-actualization" a writing strategy?

Jacqueline Winspear Thank you for your question. First I don't think I have a writing "strategy" except to move Maisie Dobbs and her cadre of fellow characters through time, the events of their day and the highs and lows of their lives. I wanted Maisie to reflect the history and the spirit of the women of her day - they were the first generation to go to war in modern times in significant numbers and for many life after the Great War was to be one spent alone, given the numbers of young men lost to war. I'm wondering why characters have to have "vices" as not everyone has a vice - not one that's inherently interesting anyway. But she has her failings - for example, she tries to take care of people when what is happening to them is really none of her business, and in so doing can alienate people. She starts smoking in A DANGEROUS PLACE, and - not that it's a vice - was certainly living with James Compton before they were married (not completely unusual in those days, among the better off anyway). The key is that Maisie is very much of her generation - independent because she has had to be.

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