Shrewd, indomitable and humorous, Margaret has risen up from the streets. Proud of the way she runs her family and her house, she is tough and loving in equal measure. She is hungry for success and thrilled when she achieves it – even when her ambition begins to threaten everything she cares for.
Margaret is the product of generations of whoring. She runs a popular middle-class brothel in Covent Garden, working hard to find new clients and to keep her position on Fortune’s slippery wheel. This is becoming increasingly difficult as Covent Garden isn’t the hot spot it once was. Margaret retains a bruised humanity, using laughter as a weapon and a shield. She treats her employees fairly, by the standards of the day. Although she takes a massive cut of everything that they earn, she encourages them not to drink and to save their money, giving Margaret’s house its good atmosphere. The women are there by choice and they earn a decent living. She is ambitious for herself, hoping to exploit London’s property boom with a move to Soho, a more fashionable and expensive area. She is also deeply emotionally invested in the success of her two daughters, Charlotte and Lucy.