Mavis Percival
Fictional character · In Palace of Tears
Established identity and circumstances
Mavis is Steve’s mother, full name Mavis Cicely Percival, née Daniels. She raised Steve effectively as a single parent after the death of his father. She works for the Foreign Office as a cover for a senior intelligence career, but Steve does not know about her intelligence career.
She has worked in Germany since the post-war period, including Wolfsburg and Berlin during the blockade, and was later involved in operations concerning East Germany. She is described by official and personal testimony as highly competent, discreet and respected.
Desires, loyalties and conflicts
Mavis wants Steve to be safe, independent and capable of sustaining adult responsibilities. She is proud of his intelligence but distrusts his judgement. She initially resists his relationship with Grace because she fears he will let Grace down or become estranged from a future grandchild.
Her private life has been deliberately concealed from Steve. She has had a rekindled relationship with Sheena and an earlier relationship with Dieter Müller. The exact chronology and operational meaning of these relationships are initially obscured.
Agency
Mavis:
- raises Steve and enables his education;
- maintains a covert professional life;
- participates in the operation concerning Müller;
- prepares a will, financial statement and personal letter;
- leaves Steve money and keys to the London flat;
- asks Sheena to act as an informal guardian or godmother;
- writes a careful account of her love and professional life.
Her injury in Berlin is officially a hit-and-run accident. Sheena believes it may have been an assassination, but no hard evidence is supplied.
Voice and behaviour
Mavis is practical, controlled and more formidable than Steve realises. Her questioning of Grace is deliberately theatrical and partly tests both Grace and Steve. Her apparent domestic modesty is a cover for a much larger professional life.
Position at the end
Mavis dies from injuries sustained in Berlin. Her death resolves the question of whether Steve’s mother’s life was merely domestic or administrative: she was an intelligence officer. It creates new uncertainties concerning the accident, Müller, Sheena, the missing earring, the staged flat and the extent of Mavis’s operational history.