Beautiful People: Adelaide Macefield

Adelaide Macefield. What is there to say about this girl? She is one of my most difficult and at the same time most beloved characters. First off, she is Bertram's twin, and the eldest of all the Macefield children...by thirteen minutes. She is wild, passionate, beautiful, clever, and has a sharp tongue in her head. She is not noted for her kindness, nor gentleness, and yet she is good at heart. Ever-blundering, yet ever-true, Adelaide is one of my People...she is, in fact, rather built off of one of my own sisters, so I know her well. Dear Addie...I hope you love her too. :)

1. If your character could be played by an actor, who would it be? 

Could this question be any easier? Lucy Boynton of Sense and Sensibility and Miss Potter fame.

(also shown in picture at top of page)

Lucy Boynton has the wild, careless sort of beauty that is beautiful for its very unconsciousness. I also think both characters Lucy has played have Adelaide's resilient, stubborn streak...a young Beatrix and Margaret Dashwood? Oho, yes.


2. Does your character have a specific theme-song?


Will poetry do? Hmmm? Then I shall quote Robert Burns:

"My love she's but a lassie yet

My love she's but a lassie yet

We'll let her stand a year or twa'--

She'll noo be half sae saucy yet."

3. What's his [her] worst childhood memory?

Oh. Miss Perdue, definitely. Adelaide loved Nannykins but Miss Perdue was a tartar in comparison...I do think Adelaide called her that once...shocking, no?

4. If your character had a super-power, what would it be?

Oh mercy. Adelaide would face you squarely and tell you that one doesn't need a super-power when one is already fabulous. If you are not fabulous, then you'd better go home and leave the fabulous-ness to someone with more capacity for it.


5. If your character [wrecked] on an island with a bunch of other people, how could your character help the group survive? 

Interesting question, this, for it seems to pull at the most ungenerous pieces of a character's makeup and throw them into glaring spotlights...Well, for starters, Adelaide is not cruel...she is just not very generous. However, given the proper incentive (as in, if her family were the bunch we speak of) she is a perfect Tigeress and you would not wish to cross her. I imagine she'd eat a parrot or...or let her family eat her if that would do any good. Which it wouldn't. And she'd be the first to discount the idea on those terms.

6. Is he married? If not, does he someday wish to be?  

Of course she is not married yet--she has hardly thought that far ahead, preferring to live in the moment, however I think Adelaide would enjoy the triumph of having a fellow desperately in love with her...yes...I think marriage will be in her future. :D

7. What is a cause he would die for?  

Adelaide is not accustomed to thinking dying for anything truly necessary...there is almost always an easier way out. Isn't there? However, the answer to Question 5 could aptly fit her sentiments on the subject.

8. Would he rather die fighting valiantly, or quietly at home? 

Oh, valiantly of course. Adelaide is nothing if she is not valiant. There is not a spider's nose-hair of fear about this lass.

9. If a stranger walked up to him and told him he is the child of the prophesy, would he believe them?  

I daresay Adelaide would be rather rude and laugh in the person's face and wonder when the punch-line was coming. A child of destiny? Of course. A child of prophesy? What rot.

10. Do they prefer the country, or the city?  

By all means, the City. Unless she was on holiday in which case she'd prefer the seaside with plenty of coves for secret Psammead-like adventures. :)


So there you have it. World, meet Adelaide Macefield...she thinks you ought to know her.