Character of the Month - Rose Mortmain from 'I Capture the Castle'

One day I would like to become an author and I have already started practising my writing. However I hope to get better at it soon! Though before I even thought of becoming an author I fell in love with reading - novels mostly. I just love reading about other worlds and other people's lives. I guess that's also why I like photography: you get a peek at someone else's thoughts and life. When I read the characters become almost like friends to me and the idea came to me whilst reading today: character of the month. So this is it, the first 'Character of the Month' post on 'Footsteps of a Fledgling'.

Rose Mortmain sitting with her sister Cassandra

"Rose looks particularly fetching by firelight because she is a pinkish person; her skin has a pink glow and her hair is pinkish gold, very light and feathery." 

I've read 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith countless times and seen the film and found the character of Rose Mortmain, the sister of the narrator, to be both selfless and selfish. I think to understand what I mean you have to read the book which, I promise you, isn't a arduous task! 

I first read 'I Capture the Castle' whilst on holiday in Wales. We stayed in a little cottage right underneath a privately-owned crumbling castle. It was built around the same time as the castle in the book and felt funny to read it in the garden whilst looking up at the real-life castle just across the lane! 

Rose Mortmain is the prettier older sister of Cassandra Mortmain who writes a journal in the 1920s-30s telling the story of her family living, virtually penniless, in a crumbling castle called Godsend Castle. Mr. Mortmain is a struggling writer who wrote one bestseller and now suffers from terrible writer's block. It is Rose's fantasy to marry a wealthy man and escaping the poverty of her family. She gets engaged later in the novel after a little help from Cassandra, her step-mother Topaz (not wicked!), Thomas her brother and Stephen who is the family servant. I don't want to give too much away if you haven't read the book because it is such a fantastic read. The piece 'Clair de Lune' is mentioned in the book and used in the film and whenever I hear it I always think of the Mortmains in their crumbling castle waiting for something or someone to help them.

Happy wanderings :)

Nell x