A Discussion for Reading Groups

With The Olive Sisters I wanted to create a book that had the momentum I enjoy in a book, something that keeps you turning the pages, great characters people could relate to, and to really try to plumb the emotions of the main character. I didn’t want it to be harrowing but I wanted it to be alive.

When people assume it is autobiographical I take that as a compliment—because it’s not at all. This confessional style was exactly what I was after for my first person narrator, Adrienne, so the fact the people think it’s autobiographical tells me that I’ve succeeded, the character has a beating heart. She’s not a caring sharing type, the only person she really confides in is you, the reader. There are certainly aspects of myself in Adrienne —I did bequeath her my hot flushes, I think we need more heroines with hot flushes, frankly—but there are just as many aspects of myself in other characters as well. But as far as I know I don’t have a drop of Italian blood in me.

In creating Adrienne I had a really strong sense of a woman who had put down shallow roots and allowed her work to define her then she loses everything she values —let’s look at how she deals with that. I wanted her to be someone who is not comfortable in herself or even with herself. She’s someone who is avoiding any sort of self-realisation, who is resistant to self-knowledge.

For me, The Olive Sisters is about home and belonging and how important that is to people’s sense of identity. We used to define ourselves by whom we were born to and where we were born. Somehow we seem to have lost that and we’ve come to define ourselves by our work. More and more people seem to leave their birthplace and family to pursue work or ‘lifestyle’ (the most overused word of the 21sth century) and we’ve become restless people with homeless hearts.

I chose an Italian background and the metaphor of the olive grove, with all its history, as her ‘true’ home. I wanted to have her move towards something real and traditional, away from the temporary pleasures and comforts of her life to more simple and sustaining comforts.

The lifeblood of the book, the relationship between Adrienne and her mother, comes from my insights into the complex nature of our sense of identity based on the many discussions I’ve had with my eldest son. I had him when I was 17 years old and was not reunited with him until he was 22. He had an idyllic upbringing with great parents and is definitely a well-rounded individual. But there is a certain confusion I’ve seen in all the people I know who are adopted. I think that this eases for most people when they develop a relationship with their birth parents and particularly their mother. It seems to clarify their identity and validate who they are and why they respond to life the way they do.

I described my first meeting with my son in my earlier book as having the feeling of ‘coming home from everywhere I’d ever been’ and that was exactly the feeling, some sort of vast relief. However far a child strays, emotionally or physically, his mother will always be ‘home’ the place he came from – no amount of paperwork can change that.

So, in summary, although I have tried to write this story in a way that’s fresh and easily digested, the underlying issues are important to me: family, love, honesty, taking care of each other, dealing adversity in a way that will help us grow stronger as individuals. Most of all understanding that life can be sweet but not all the time. That happiness can suddenly flare and light the darkest shadows and sometimes that moment is enough to make life worth living.

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