Former Bluff councillor explores Natal colonial history in debut novel
Duncan du Bois said the 250-page historical novel stemmed from his vast archive of research on Natal colonial history which he had gathered for his PhD dissertation.
FORMER Ward 66 councillor and retired history teacher Duncan du Bois has penned his first novel, Liaisons – Life in a Colonial County.
Du Bois, who lives on The Bluff, said the 250-page historical novel explores the lives of two fictitious colonial families in the sugar-growing Natal south coast.
“The novel is a gentle dip into a forgotten past, packaged within credible and dramatic human experiences. Contextualised from 1860 to 1875, Liaisons provides insights into a time and place that is part of our provincial history, while tracking interaction between actual and fictitious characters.
“The story evolved within the confines of events and developments in the Umzinto, Umkomaas, Scottburgh, Sezela and Park Rynie areas. Besides episodes of drama, tragedy, violence, kidnapping and romance, Liaisons revisits controversial issues of that age, such as women’s rights, social conventions, labour exploitation, predatory capitalism and racial division,” he said.
He added that the self-published novel consists of three historical images: two advertisements from the 1860s and a map that was published in 1858.
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Du Bois said that having read dozens of Jeffery Archer, Sidney Sheldon and John Grisham novels, the idea of attempting to write a novel appealed to him.
“This, together with the fact that I had a vast archive of research on Natal colonial history, which I had gathered for my PhD dissertation,” he said.
Du Bois said he started writing the novel in January this year and completed it by May.
“The only planning I did was at the outset to create the two fictitious families and their origins in Yorkshire, from where many of the Byrne settlers came. I pored over a school atlas to find the name of a town that I liked and found Dewsbury. I also looked up its history so as to fit my fictitious Prescott family into it. So the references to the Industrial Revolution are all correct,” he said.
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Du Bois said that constant revision was an essential part of developing a product that shines.
“Every day, when I sat down at the keyboard to generate more of Liaisons, I would go over what I had produced the previous day. Often, I would spend more time fixing or adding or rearranging the order of that material before starting any fresh stuff. On a good day, I might generate 2 000 new words.
“Starting a new chapter was mostly difficult because I felt the need to switch to another aspect of the story or era. One needs to keep servicing various aspects within the wider story rather than just hitting on the main characters or main thread,” he said.
Du Bois, who has written five books, said he is currently working on a sequel to the novel which is provisionally titled Challenges in a Colonial County.
Liaisons is currently available on Amazon and Takealot, as well as from Du Bois. He can be contacted on duncanldubois@gmail.com or 083 291 4913. It will also be available at Inkdotcom and the Mud Pie Company on The Bluff.
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