Ottillee Bottomly might be a fictional heroine, but she’s always been very real to me. Throughout a writing process slowed down by edits, plot holes and coffee refills (not to mention an unresolved issue with commas), I somehow knew how this comically cross schoolgirl was going to react in any of the situations I put her in. I knew exactly what she was going to do, say and most importantly, feel.
But where did Ottillee spring from? Partly from me, of course. After all, I‘d once been an indignant 11-year-old schoolgirl myself and, as it turns out, I’d long been harbouring a subconscious desire to boss everyone about in the heady knowledge that I was always right.
But Ottillee was also influenced by an amusing character I read about more than twenty years ago. A character about as far removed from a skinny prepubescent schoolgirl as it’s possible to get. Morgan Leafy was a portly middle-aged diplomat with flaws so authentic and rants so funny that I never quite forgot him. Yet while William Boyd’s protagonist in 'A Good Man in Africa' was usually the author of his own downfall, I’m hoping Ottillee’s tender years and recent tragedy will go some way to excusing her bad behaviour!
Certainly, at the beginning of The Dragondah Mysteries, Ottillee is more anti-heroine than heroine. Following the loss of her father 18 months earlier, she still wants to rail against the entire world but has to be satisfied with making her mother’s life a misery. She’s resolutely snotty, sullen and sulky, unable even to admit that things might be looking up when she’s bequeathed an old manor house in Cornwall. As far as Ottillee’s concerned, leaving London behind means leaving her father behind, if only her memories of him.
But thankfully readers just have to wait until Chapter 3 for Ottillee to be distracted from her misery. Yes, it's not long before Ottillee's totally captivated by the rugged beauty, extraordinary wildlife, intriguing history and charismatic inhabitants of her new Cornish home. She also meets a local boy called Finn who turns out to be her perfect foil – as easy-going as she is tightly wound, and as proud of Dragondah as she is initially dismissive. And when Ottillee's Cornish inheritance finally turns from an unmitigated disaster to an intriguing mystery, her transformation from tiresome anti-heroine to plucky heroine is complete!
The Dragondah Mysteries are available in print or ebook form. Click here to learn more.
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