UK romance novelist comes to town

INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed bestselling author, Lesley Pearse, hosted an author question and answer event at the Durban Country Club on Monday, 15 May.

Speaking at the event, Pearse said it had taken seven years for her first book to be published. Today, she is one of the UK’s best-loved novelists with fans across the globe and sales of over 10 million copies of her books to date.

She wrote her first novel in six months and wrote a further two while she waited for it to be published. Since 1993 she has written 25 books.

“When I started writing it felt like time was running out. I was turning 40 and I wanted to have my own business, write a book and get my driver’s licence. I didn’t have the happiest marriage, and I used to pack the kids off to bed and write, sometimes all night. I wrote to keep myself busy. I usually take about a year to complete a book. I always think I should give myself a break, but after a few weeks my life feels empty without my little play mates, and I start another as soon as I finish one book, and have to organise a whole new group of characters! I don’t know where they come from, they just materialise,” she said.

Truth is often stranger than fiction and Lesley’s life has been as packed with as much drama as her books. She was three when her mother died under tragic circumstances. Her father was away at sea and it was only when a neighbour saw Lesley and her brother playing outside without coats on that suspicions were aroused. With her father in the Royal Marines, Lesley and her older brother spent three years in grim orphanages before her father remarried – a veritable dragon of an ex-army nurse – and Lesley and her older brother were brought home again, to be joined by two other children who were later adopted by her father and stepmother, and a continuing stream of foster children.

The impact of constant change and uncertainty in Lesley’s early years is reflected in one of the recurring themes in her books: what happens to those who are emotionally damaged as children. It was an extraordinary childhood and in all her books, Lesley has skilfully married the pain and unhappiness of her early experiences with a unique gift for storytelling.

“Most of my characters are powerful, strong women who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. I have experienced that everyone who has had a difficult childhood has become a strong person. Hardships make people,” she said.

Speaking about what she felt was her best work, Pearse said she really enjoyed writing and researching Never Look Back, but that she loved the Belle trilogy the most.

Lesley will be releasing her latest novel, The Woman in the Wood this July. She said this was quite a ‘dark story’ about two children who find a recluse, Grace, living in the wood near their grandmother’s house.

“This new book is dark, I seem to be getting darker as I get older. I think the darkness has always been there!” she laughed.

When asked whether she would consider writing a book set in South Africa, she said: “I have thought about it a hundred times, but the more I go into the history of the country, the more complicated it gets! I don’t know if I will,” she said.