Studies before training as an actor at Drama Studio London. Other than treading the boards Vassell has also worked in advertising, as a "headhunter" and as a purveyor of silk top hats.
In her debut novel, The Other Half, "the antagonist, Rupert Beauchamp, is a terrible Wodehousian wanker with a title, a fortune which his ancestors grabbed during the Raj, and a very good motive for murdering his Instagram-influencer girlfriend."
At the Guardian Vassell tagged ten of Rupert’s literary ancestors, including:
Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility by Jane AustenRead about the other entries on the list.
At least a third of all of Austen’s male characters are cads. There’s a plethora of bounders to choose from (I almost chose icky Wickham,with his penchant for seducing impressionable 15-year-old girls), but to my mind Willoughby is the worst. Willoughby is a man of romantic sentiment, a man of sensibility, but he has neither the good sense nor the common decency to avoid impregnating teenagers. Serves him right having to marry for money when his aunt, who is rightfully appalled by his behaviour, cuts him off. He’ll still be wealthy, I suppose, but at least he won’t be that happy. Marianne, you were always going to be better off without him hun!
Sense and Sensibility is on Alexandra Silverman's list of eight of the best expressions of sloth in literature, Jimmy So's list of fifteen top film adaptations of literary classics, John Mullan's list of ten of the best wills in literature, and Sam Baker's top ten list of literary stepmothers.
--Marshal Zeringue
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