13 December 2014

Author Q&A Session #10: With Dinah Jefferies



In an another new session of Author Q&A, I present you the best-selling author who inpires her readers with her heart-touching as well as gripping story about history, tragedy, loss and love. Yes, my freinds, we have today Dinah Jefferies, the best-selling author of the book called, "The Separation", to talk about past, present and beyond the horizon of life. So, scroll down to learn more about Dinah who bares her soul to let us see that what a wonderful, inspiring human being she is and always have been!  

Read the review of The Separation



Me: Hello and welcome to my blog, Dinah. Congratulations on your debut book, The Separation. Please tell us briefly about the story behind, The Separation.

Dinah: The story behind The Separation is that I knew I wanted to write a book about loss, and I knew I wanted to set the book in Malaysia where I was born. My son, Jamie, died in an accident aged fourteen so I felt I could write about a mother losing her children with some authenticity. However, I didn’t want to write my own story and so thought up the idea of missing children. I imagine that not knowing what has happened to your children must be the worst thing. Because communications in Malaysia were in such chaos at the time, it was the perfect place for deceit and betrayal to happen, and for people to vanish mysteriously.

Me: They say: "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". Do you feel that The Separation was inspired by your experiences and challenges of your life?

Dinah: Well I think I probably answered that in the last question to some extent. There will always be an element of loss in my books, though explored in very different ways. The Separation deals with a mother’s longing for, and her search for, her children. In addition, I really do think that being brought up as a child in a colonial family has left me with very mixed feelings. I had an amah – known as an ‘ayah’ in India. My books do explore racism, as well as sexism, to a greater or lesser extent. In my second book The Tea Planter’s Wife the story is partly a seductive love story, and partly the tragic consequences of prejudice.

Me: Was it always your one true-dream to be an author?

Dinah: Not at all. I’ve done lots of interesting things in my life from living in a rock-music commune to working as an artist. Writing has come as a complete revelation to me but I am so glad I found it.

Me: Please tell us one trait of Lydia, your protagonist, that intrigues you the most.

Dinah: It’s hard to say, especially as The Separation is now two books ago. I find that once I’ve moved this far from the characters they belong more to my readers and less to me. But if I’m pushed I’d probably say I admire her resilience in the face of so many difficulties and challenges. She is a typical 1950s woman in many ways but not in others. She wants to live her life, but hasn’t been equipped with much of an education, and so has had to rely a great deal on the men in her life. Yet, despite that, she shows courage in the face of heartbreak. She’s a flawed character but a real character with a big heart.

Me: You not only took your readers to an exotic land like Malaya via your story but you also transported you readers back in a particular time. Did you research extensively or did you draw on your childhood experiences to write the story?

Dinah: Both. I researched the Emergency quite extensively, but I also relied on my mother’s photograph albums from the 1950s, and family stories that she handed down. A few things from my childhood are also in the book: the holidays on tropical islands, the waxworks, the hotel in Singapore, and various other bits and pieces.

Me: Since you were born in Malaya, can you tell us about the period when the Malayan Emergency was declared? What was it like to live in such a gruesome and tough period of time?

Dinah: A state of Emergency was declared in 1948 and so for most of the 1950s, while it continued, I was just a young child. It didn’t impact heavily on my life, though I became accustomed to seeing guns. My father had to go to work with two armed policemen every day, which to me seemed quite normal. The worst thing was seeing the awful waxworks from WW2. Emma sees them too - in my book.

Me: How will you describe your journey as an author so far?

Dinah: Exciting. Exciting. Exciting. And very hard work. Also very up and down. One minute it’s all wonderful, the next you’re wondering what on earth you’re doing. You keep going. Just like life. It’s marvellous really, as is life! I feel very fortunate, and all the time I just want to learn more and grow as a writer.

Me: What are you working on now? Please tell us briefly about it.

Dinah: My second book, The Tea Planter’s Wife will be published in August 2015 by Penguin. It’s set in Sri Lanka, but when it was known as Ceylon in the 1920s, but some of the novel takes place in 1930s New York. I finished the final edits in July, and now the first draft of my third book is with my agent and I’m waiting for edits. It’s set in Vietnam and that’s all I can say at the moment. But I am VERY excited about it.

Me: How do you get away from the stress and from your busy writing days?

Dinah: I read books by authors I admire, like Rachel Joyce and Sarah Waters, I also listen to classical music, and I like to watch good drama on the television. I particularly like some of the Scandinavian dramas we’ve been seeing lately. I also love to travel and cannot wait to visit India, where I hope to set my fourth book.

Me: Thank You so much Dinah for sparing time to have this interview session with me. I can only wish you luck in all your future endeavours.

Dinah: Thank you for inviting me, Aditi. I’ve enjoyed it. Good luck with your blog.
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Dinah's Bio:


Venetia Butterfield, Publishing Director at Penguin/Viking says: ‘Dinah Jefferies is an extraordinary storyteller and we are launching her as a major new writer for the millions of readers who love Victoria Hislop and Kate Morton. Gripping, powerful and emotional, The Separation is a guaranteed page-turner.’
In 1985, the sudden death of Dinah Jefferies’ fourteen year old son brought her life to a standstill. She drew on that experience, and on her own childhood spent in Malaya during the 1950s to write her debut novel, The Separation. The guns piled high on the hall table when the rubber planters came into town for a party, the colour and noise of Chinatown, the houses on stilts, and the lizards that left their tails behind.
Now living in Gloucestershire, Dinah once lived in Tuscany working as an au pair for an Italian countess; she has also lived in a ‘hippy’ rock’n roll commune based in an Elizabethan manor house, but started writing when she was living in a small 16th Century village in Spain.  


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