Roland Michell

Living… in Yorkshire, temporarily. Roland isn’t sure what will happen to him when he gets back to America. He’s got no real job. And then there's Val... he’s lived with her since university. But he may have overstayed his welcome, particularly after this sojourn.

Profession… scholar, studying the life of Randolph Henry Ash. Ash was a prominent Victorian poet rivaling Browning and Tennyson in literary weight, and his famous love poems to his wife Ellen have long been prized. Now Roland has stumbled upon a love letter from Ash to an unknown woman, part of a vast trove. 

Interests… the story behind these newly discovered love-letters. Scholars believed that Ash had lived a quiet and exemplary married life. Now, these love letters suddenly arise, and turn out to be to and from another major poet, Christabel LaMotte. The letters might represent a considerable academic scoop for Roland. For the first time, he felt Ash was alive in those letters. It was incredible.

Relationship Status… entwined with these letters. Maud being on his team has made all the difference. She’s a distant relative of LaMotte’s. Now he knows why Ash left all this – the clues, the poems, the letters. They wanted Maud to know the truth about her lineage. They left them for her. She even looks like Christabel. You can see it.

Challenge… finding out the truth behind the affair between Ash and LaMotte. That won't be easy: “No one knows where Christabel went when Blanche died. She seems to have vanished. Then it's hopeless. We still need to find real proof Ash and Christabel were here together.” For Roland to be the respected scholar he wants to be rather than an obscure one, he needs to unravel this historical mystery.

Personality… ambitious. This is a considerable discovery that could shock the academic community. Roland knows all academic work is the product of different people working together but it's still his discovery, and he doesn’t want that to be neglected by the press.