One of the delights about publishing any work is hearing from readers. For a piece likeYes, Miss Thompson, some of the readers are long-lost cousins.
I was thrilled to hear from a third cousin in Manitoba who had some Beaumont/Thompson family pictures. In her collection, there was a comic picture of Marjory's uncle, Joshua (Joss) Beaumont. He wears a costume of some kind--perhaps he's dressed as a character from Peter Pan or a pirate, or something else lost to time. Whatever his theatrical bent, he shows a sense of humour.
In Yes, Miss Thompson, I imagined Joshua Beaumont as a jovial uncle, a foil against the more serious mill-owner, Uncle John Beaumont. I knew very little about him other than census records and a few simple references in newspapers from 1890s Yorkshire. Creating a comic character was a lucky guess, but I think I got it right.