Turning family history into a novel – a challenging path to take.
My first historical novel - Stone of Heaven and Earth – is about to be
published.
This story is based on the real lives of my
grandparents in China, and spans the years 1914 to 1929. I never met my
Grandfather, but remember being told their story as a child. Their life
together was one of the highest of highs, and devastating tragedy.
Apart from my grandmother telling her story, I was able to draw on two memoirs written by my mother and my aunt. But their memory was almost hearsay, as they were both quite young at the time. I also had a couple of letters, but the actual details were lost over the years.
Apart from my grandmother telling her story, I was able to draw on two memoirs written by my mother and my aunt. But their memory was almost hearsay, as they were both quite young at the time. I also had a couple of letters, but the actual details were lost over the years.
I mulled over how best to present their story for a
long time. The only way to do it justice was to write Fiction based on Real
Life. Memoirs are written by people who were there, and so I had no
choice but
to add meat to the skeleton.
I did this with two main tools.
Research and Imagination.
Before I could start writing, I needed to know some
details so that I could bring to life the characters of my story. It took me
many, many hours, but I remember a rush of warmth flowing through me when I
found my Grandmother and her sister’s name in the passenger list in the
Brisbane Courier dated 22 June 1914. No one in the family knew the name of the
ship they left Brisbane on. I felt like I had dug up a long forgotten treasure
chest when I discovered the ship was the Tasman from the KMP Line, captained by
Captain Lucardie.
Further research put me in touch with a UK research
project undertaken at Bristol University. They were able to give me information
about my two leading men – their Service History from the Chinese Maritime
Customs Service.
But the jewel in the crown was the discovery of a
small newspaper article describing, in detail, a wedding. Pure gold!
From that moment on, I felt like I was holding my
Grandmother’s hand and she was leading me along the journey. I never wrote this
story alone. My grandmother was with me the whole time, I swear. I heard her
voice, saw her eyes and her smile. Shed tears with her, and with her, I fell in
love with my Grandfather.
A month spent in China retracing, as best I could, their footsteps, helped me to understand why they loved China, a very exotic land, especially a hundred years ago.
A month spent in China retracing, as best I could, their footsteps, helped me to understand why they loved China, a very exotic land, especially a hundred years ago.
As I walked along the Bund in Shanghai, I retraced the
steps of my Grandfather. He had walked there too, on his way to work at the
Customs House which still stands proud on the Bund.
In my story, I have both my Grandmother and
Grandfather walking along that very place, talking to each other, falling in
love.
Research has enabled me to reach my Grandparents, to
feel their presence. I’m sure they are both very happy with the outcome.
Stone of Heaven and Earth
people in the past have a lot of fun
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Our people have a classic case of Stockholm Syndrome in Pakistan. Seeing dictatorship for more than half of it's existence since 1947 we see common people have grudgingly accepted their fate and have almost given up on the dreams on which our country was founded upon. "You are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan" these golden words of our founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah ring hollow when we see extreme intolerance building up in our society. Mob lynching of minorities although not that frequent but it is become a part of our lives. The cruel assassination of Punjab governor, Salman Taseer in 2011 who chose to defend a poor Christian women charged with blasphemy, is still vivid in our imagination. Leading psychologists in Karachi have pointed out that we are indeed suffering with the classic case of Stockholm Syndrome as we believe that our captors are actually our saviours.
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