Character Introduction: Meet Margaret Harrington
Some characters quietly reveal themselves over time. Margaret Harrington was one of those characters.
Raised in the comfort and security of Victorian England, Margaret leaves behind a life of privilege to accompany her husband, James, to India. She believes she is simply following him as he embarks on one of the British Empire's great engineering projects.
She could not be more mistaken. India challenges everything Margaret believes about duty, compassion and belonging. What begins as a journey to support her husband becomes a journey of self-discovery, one that will transform not only her own life but the lives of countless others she encounters along the way.
In many ways, Margaret became the emotional heart of Of Iron and Incense. While James helps forge a railway through the Himalayan foothills, Margaret discovers that the greatest legacy we leave is not measured in stone or steel, but in the lives we choose to change.
Creating Margaret was one of the most rewarding parts of writing Of Iron and Incense, and it became deeply emotional for me. She reminded me that courage is not always loud. Sometimes it is found in quiet acts of kindness, in questioning long-held beliefs, and in having the strength to embrace a world very different from your own.
I hope you will enjoy meeting Margaret.
Character Introduction: Meet James Harrington.
When I first imagined Of Iron and Incense, James arrived before almost anyone else.
I was interested in writing about a man shaped by privilege and empire, yet never entirely comfortable within either. So many colonial narratives are told through certainty, through men convinced of their rightness. James begins instead with curiosity, empathy, and an almost dangerous belief that people can build better worlds if they try hard enough.
His journey through India is not simply about constructing a railway. It is about confronting the limits of the life he inherited, and slowly learning that love, belonging, and family rarely fit neatly within the boundaries society creates for them.
In many ways, James became the emotional anchor of Of Iron and Incense. A man constantly torn between duty and conscience, ambition and compassion, England and India.
James is shown in front of the Forth Bridge, a world-famous cantilever railway bridge in eastern Scotland that James worked on as a graduate from University.
Meet James:
Before India, before the railway, before grief and love reshaped his world, James Harrington was simply the son of an English aristocratic family. He is known. to his University chums as intelligent, restless, and quietly dissatisfied with the life expected of him.
Born into privilege but drawn to purpose, James chooses engineering over inheritance, believing that bridges, tunnels, and railways might leave behind something more meaningful than titles ever could. In 1898, he accepts a position on the ambitious Kalka–Shimla railway project in northern India, uprooting his wife Margaret and young daughter Lizzie for a country he barely understands.
What begins as professional ambition soon becomes something far more personal.
India challenges everything James believes about empire, class, duty, and belonging. Amid the vast Himalayan landscapes and brutal demands of construction, he is forced to confront both the machinery of colonialism and his own place within it. Yet James is not a hero in the traditional sense. He is thoughtful, often conflicted, and at times painfully blind to the realities around him.
At his heart, James is a, engineer, a builder, not only of railways, but of fragile connections between worlds, cultures, and people who have been taught to remain apart.
His greatest strength is his compassion. His greatest weakness is believing he can protect everyone he loves from the cost of the world they inhabit.
And ultimately, the railway he helps build will transform not only the mountains, but his family forever.
