Hi,

As I am sure you have gathered, I love your books, and for me, the best character in them is Jessica Whitwell. I was wondering what the inspiration for this character was, weather there is someone you know in real life that you based her on, or weather she just came to you?

I was also wondering how you define the level of magician and demon?

Thanks,

Beleth.

Hi Beleth,

I'm glad that Jessica W has a fan! I rather like her as well, since though sinister and malign she's also rather strong and not a wholesale meglomaniac in quite the way Makepeace and Lovelace are.

I'm not sure where she came from. I think she first appeared when I was writing the sequences at the Houses of Parliament and Tower of London in the first book. I liked her spikey physicality, which contrasted nicely with the rotund Sholto Pinn, who also emerged around this time. It was good to have a formidable female figure too. It was only at the end of the book that I decided that she would become Nat's new master, and that meant she became an even stronger presence in book two. She doesn't come into number three as much as I'd like, but I gave her an honourable death - which actually saves Nat and Kitty's lives.

As for the levels of magician and demon, I tend to avoid the details of this. There is an obvious hierarchy of spirits and of magicians - the two rather reflect each other - but the exact numerical levels remain unclear. Partly this is because Bart (to his annoyance) can't progress up the spirit hierarchy, so he never dwells on his exact (rather middling) level...