Although utterly believable for the Regency, do you think A Matter of Class could have been successfully set during the twenty-first century? What type of changes, if any, would have to have been made to make a more contemporary setting work?
MB: Hmm, let me try to answer this without giving too much of the plot away to those who have not read the book. Both sets of parents behave in a way they could not get away with today—their "children" would simply defy them. And the young couple would not have to behave as they do if they lived in the contemporary world. In fact, this particular story would be virtually unworkable in a contemporary setting. But it is the type of situation I love dealing with—hence my choice of writing Regency-era stories rather than contemporary ones.
A Matter of Class delves deeply into several types of love: that between parent and child, as well as man and woman. As someone who’s been a daughter, a wife and a mother, you’ve known firsthand the type of love that accompanies each role. Bearing that in mind, which scene do you find most touching and why?
MB: There is a scene toward the end of the book in which the heroine's father, who has behaved as a humorless tyrant throughout, finally discovers and admits to his wife and daughter that after all his love for them is unconditional. It is a discovery that is potentially disastrous for him in more ways than one, but it is a point to which I bring any number of my characters in the course of the love stories I write. That is what love is, after all—selfless and unconditional and terribly risky! And it is wonderful when a character (or a real person!) chooses love as the pervading influence in life.
Feuding between neighbors—the merchant-class Masons and the aristocratic Ashtons –sets the basis for the entire story in A Matter of Class. If you’d lived in the general area, which family do you think you’d have sided with and why?
MB: Well, if I had lived in the area, I would have undoubtedly been poorer than either family and dependent upon the goodwill of the more powerful of them—that is the Ashtons. I would probably have been obsequious and practical enough to side with them. From the vantage point of my present, far more independent existence, I would like to think that I would have refused to take sides at all, though the effect of that decision would probably have alienated me from the Ashtons and most of my other neighbors.
The title A Matter of Class is something of a play on words: It could refer to a matter of caste distinction or social standing, which certainly pertains to this story; but it could also refer to one or more individuals acting with true personal grace and dignity. Which definition do you prefer for this book and why?
MB: I think the first of the suggested meanings is more appropriate for the story. The young people behave with a degree of class, since they try their very best not to hurt their parents. But there is, of course, a lot of self-interest in their behavior, too.
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