Tina Argyll

Where do we meet Tina in Ordeal By Innocence?

At the beginning we meet her she’s working as a librarian, she’s started to try and get her own sense of independence, which has been put on hold by Rachel’s murder. She has to come back and take care of her family and her father and make sure everything is ok.

How would you describe Tina’s relationship with her father?

He’s more open with her, whereas with Rachel she can’t really get any affection or that much needed hug. I imagine if she has questions or wants to be told a story she can just go in to Leo’s office and feel very comfortable and appreciated, more so than she might be with Rachel. The compliments come easier from Leo.

What is that relationship with her mother like at the beginning?

To begin with, it was pretty obvious, to me at least, that her acceptance and her compliments were a barometer for Tina’s self esteem. Tina gets that a bit by helping Rachel keep the order in the house, not doing anything too crazy, not messing up, being the good daughter. She, more so than her other siblings, is so grateful to Rachel and loves her so much because she’s essentially saved her from what Tina believes would have been a doomed life.

She’s a young black girl in the 50s - she would have been in an orphanage probably forever. It would have been very unlikely that anyone would have adopted her and then what would her prospects have been. So she’s very grateful to her, loves her and does as she says. She has respect for her, but there’s still the inability to get those compliments from her, that reassurance vocally and physically. Then you see that in the twist that the truth is Rachel isn’t able to give her the kind of love that a biological mother would because you can tell she doesn’t really have it within her.

Tina appears to use Sunny Point as her safe place, can you tell us a bit about this world she inhabits and what it means to her to be here?

There’s a sense that even though she’s able to pass in this world, she’s very self aware because she has to be. She’s aware of her difference so she doesn’t feel like she fits and that’s where that self-awareness comes from, in making sure that she does. She’s really grateful to Rachel and to Leo for bringing her in to this world of theirs and she feels they’ve made her in to someone else. I think there’s a quote in the book where she says “I didn’t want to be myself, I wanted to be someone else and they made me someone else, they made me Christina Argyll’.

So when she’s at home she’s able to get that confidence. I'm sure she was getting to a point where she felt like she did belong and then as soon as she goes out in to the world beyond Sunny Point she doesn’t feel that comfort. Even gaining a sense of independence she couldn’t go as far as Hester goes because she wouldn’t really survive on her own in the way Hester because of her skin colour. So she’s still held by home so much.