Learning amongst the Grapes

In all my novels, research has played a crucial part. If you want to be able to reflect a particular period in history, or if you want your characters to display a certain skill, you need - as the author - to understand and ideally master that historical period or physical skill yourself! 

And so, in researching my latest novel, The Case Against Fili Du Bois, set in the lovely Franschhoek Valley, I needed to explore how wine is actually made. Having lived in Cape Town and visited the winelands of the Western Cape, I did have a basic knowledge of vine cultivars and the notes to be looking for in tastings... but it wasn't enough.

I wanted to gain a more in-depth understanding of how wine is actually made - from grape to glass. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was lucky enough to be taken under the wing of a wine estate owner and his wine-maker who explained the whole process, and invited me into their cellar to see the wine being aged in barrels. From fermentation to filtration, from maturation to bottling... it all became clearer. I could then write about the fictional Du Bois Vineyards and its wine production with confidence.

And now, when I raise a glass to my young heroine, Fili, who collaborates on her first vintage at the tender age of 13, I also drink to the complex and beautiful process that I've come to understand more closely... a process that takes grapes from the vineyard and turns them into the wine in our glass!
Cheers!   

Happy New Year!

What are your New Year resolutions for 2025? Or do you prefer to take the year as it comes? I tend to find that any resolution made in the heat of a New Year's event quickly dissipates in the cold light of day come 1st January! 

I often find it easier - and more effective - to have a general desire to do something fresh/differently, rather than setting a specific task. So, in a writerly context, rather than giving myself a stern talking-to about focussing on worthy books, I often go with the flow of what is being recommended by well-read friends, or what I spot someone consuming avidly on the train...

However, before starting to write my novels, I did indeed set myself a challenging reading list. I wanted to sample books written by a variety of authors, in different styles, and set across a range of centuries and geographic locations. It taught me a great deal, and helped me to hone my style of writing. 

Reading for pleasure or distraction, though, is a different occupation  - yet often just as rewarding as that worthy tome I've been meaning to start for ages...
And a book can be a much-needed companion. The great C.S Lewis said:
We read to know we are not alone. 

Happy New Year, and Happy Reading!        

Snap up a Christmas read!

When do you read?
Opinions vary, but apparently early morning reading - between 5am and 7am - is the time when you should! Yet perhaps many of us are still waking up at that point?
There is something to be said, though, for reading earlier rather than later. Very often we read at night, just before turning out the light. This may be a wonderful way to relax but I wonder if we remember what we have read with the same sense of recall that we would have had if we'd attacked our reading in the morning, say... but then we run into work and chores...  

If you're serious about reading, the experts recommend that you set yourself the challenge of reading a certain number of pages every day. But don't try to cram those in at night because you might not be awake enough to finish your quota! Incidentally, if you do read at night, then preferably do so with a physical book rather than on a screen. Scientists say that we should avoid viewing screens - "blue light exposure" - from about an hour before we wish to go to sleep, in order to allow the body to start producing the miracle sleep hormone called melatonin, which hastens us towards a good night's rest. Zzzz...

Whenever we do manage to indulge in it, reading benefits us all.  
As Napoleon said, in a moment away from the battlefield:

"Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world."

Happy Christmas, Happy Reading!

Roll out the barrel (and other themes)!

I always look for a secondary, underlying theme for my novels... a thread that will weave its way through the story despite plot twists and capricious characters!
In my first book, The Housemaid's Daughter, that theme is music. Ada, the heroine, is a brilliant pianist and music is her inspiration - and refuge. 

In The Girl from Simon's Bay, it is the sea and the forces of nature that forever impact the lives of David and Louise. In The Fire Portrait, the underlying thread is art. For Frances, the heroine, art becomes not just her vocation but also a quietly potent weapon. In The Case Against Fili Du Bois, set in the beautiful Franschhoek Valley with its French heritage estates, I needed to look no further than wine for my subtle theme. I was lucky enough to be given expert help by the owner of an estate and his wine-maker, who led me through the process. I leant about sugar readings, the de-stemming and crushing of the berries, the fermentations, filtrations and periods of maturation that determine the quality and character of the finished product. Fili, the adopted heroine of the novel, immerses herself in the process. It is her way of proving that she belongs at Du Bois Vineyards and that she will carry the traditions of the farm and its workers forward into a bright - yet sometimes uncertain - future... 
For my wine, success would depend on years in the barrel - and a dose of luck:
Would my dark liquid feel inclined to transform itself into a wine that would tell the world I was worthy of being a Du Bois? 
Be strong! I urged myself. Be the best vintage you can be! 

 

What happens after the story ends?

When talking about my novels at signings or events, I've often been asked if I will write a sequel to a particular book. After all, how could I leave Ada's beloved grandson, Thebo, without mapping out his future? And what about Louise's son, Sam, who might return to South Africa from abroad once apartheid ends? And will Hamish, Frances's son in The Fire Portrait, ever get to meet his biological father? And would that destroy the cherished memories he holds of Julian, whom he believed was his parent? 

In The Case Against Fili Du Bois, the character whom readers often want to follow further is not necessarily the heroine Fili, whose future finally seems assured, but Kula Mfusi, the troubled young man who flees Du Bois Vineyards after being suspected of murder. How does he evade the police? Does he leave the country? Or change his name? And would new medical advances prove that he could not have harmed the victim? Or might he confess that he was, in fact, guilty? 

I have my own confession to make: I like a little uncertainty! While I try to gather the narrative strands into a satisfying ending, I also like to leave some aspects of the story unresolved. I dangle a little thread in the air and leave it hanging, allowing you, the reader, to reflect on the possibilities in your own mind... 
Sometimes, in a crowd, I find myself looking for Kula Mfusi.
The fierce eyes. The unnerving stillness.
But I never saw him again. Or heard from him.
Yet years later, on the anniversary of Mum's death, there were different flowers on her grave from the roses we traditionally brought... 

   

Unexpected sighting

Twelve years ago, my first novel, The Housemaid's Daughter, was published in English world-wide, and was subsequently translated into 14 languages from Icelandic to Spanish to Chinese! I was an unknown author at that stage, and had no idea how the book would be received. Luckily, it struck a chord with readers far and wide, and its success spurred me to keep writing. Since that time, I have produced 3 other novels.

Yet Housemaid still gathers many new readers despite its advancing years. Somehow the story of Ada, the young black girl in service to an Irish immigrant family during the apartheid years, continues to appeal. 

I have a particular musical connection to Ada because I created her to be a pianist. And whenever I happen to play her signature piece from the book, Chopin's Raindrop Prelude, I think of her. I play the piece for pleasure but the stakes were higher for Ada: she plays it as an "audition" in front of a potential employer. She needs a job, she's expecting a child, she's desperate for the chance of an independent future...    

Recently, I was delighted to find that The Housemaid's Daughter appears on a list of books about South Africa. And, to my surprise, it held its own amid a clutch of impressive titles. Have a look! 
https://voyageprovocateur.com/destinations/africa/10-best-books-on-south-africa/   

Fili Du Bois: the 'stray' heroine...

The subtitle to my new novel, The Case Against Fili Du Bois, is: A stray child, an unsolved crime, a precious legacy. But what event led me to design the heroine, Fili, to be a "stray" child? Wrapped in a shawl, laid in a cardboard box that was wedged into a ditch, yet in a place where she was likely to be found?

It all started when I happened to drive past a church in the southern Cape Peninsula of South Africa. Fixed to a side wall was a sign that, while small, was hard to miss. It said: "Baby drop off. Ages up to 3". Each time I happened to pass by, I would reflect on the kindness of the church in offering such a service so that needy young parents could work or care for other family for a few hours while knowing their baby would be looked after. But then I got to wonder whether there had ever been an instance where a child had been dropped off - and never fetched? 

And so the story of Fili began. 
I remember the day I was left behind...
But I can't remember my mother, however hard I try. Why did she leave me? 
Abandoned babies are a particular tragedy, not just for the child but also for the mother or parents who are perhaps forced to give up their child due to poverty or illness or inability to care for their young. In the book, the church attempts to trace her mother, but with no success. Fili is taken to an orphanage and put up for adoption. 
I've tried to make excuses for her but I can't. 
How can I love her when she never kept me? 

Yet Fili is lucky. 
Martin and Ray Du Bois have been unable to have children of their own. Fili, Ray recalls, was the most adorable child on offer at the orphanage. She'd lifted her arms to them in appeal, and they'd looked no further. 
But will Fili forgive her birth mother now that she has a new set of parents?
And will her unknown background haunt her - and impact her promising future?
You decide... when you've read the book...