Love and Fury
Margie Orford
Jonathan Ball Publishers
Review: Karen Watkins
Margie Orford is an internationally acclaimed writer known for her Clare Hart crime thrillers, which have been translated and sold worldwide.
Born in England to South African parents, she has lived in Windhoek, London, New York and Cape Town. She was recently in South Africa to promote Love and Fury and to attend book festivals in Simon’s Town and Franschhoek.
Her story begins in Windhoek growing up as the eldest of three children born to a doctor father and a mother who had been a nurse.
Weekends and holidays were spent on a farm in the country creating magnificent memories. Then, at age 14, Orford was sent to boarding school in Cape Town.
Studying English and film honours at UCT, she met Aidan, an architectural student. He had already served his compulsory two years in the military, but when he was called up for camps, he left for London. She joined him later planning to travel and to write. Instead they became parents, got married and fell into the inertia of marriage. Cooking, cleaning, mothering and restless homesickness for Cape Town meant no time to do what Orford really wanted - write.
When Nelson Mandela was released the family returned to a house in newly independent Namibia, near her parents.
Stuck in domesticity, her restlessness continued. A second daughter arrived and then a third. Driven by desire to write she found work with a new publishing house whose aim was for Namibian women to see themselves reflected in literature.
Winning a Fulbright scholarship, she moved to New York with an understanding that Aidan would be the breadwinner while she could start writing. Once established, the tables would turn and she would take over the financial role while he started his own practice.
This didn’t work to plan. Instead she was falling out of love with Aidan as her research into violence, mostly against women and children, was dragging her into a deep depression.
It was while writing a book on child pornography that she agonised about achieving acclaim and making money on the back of the exploitation of the fictional and yet representative victims who she wrote about.
And so her life continued – depression, dreams of suicide, therapy, frozen fury. Her girls left home and she left Aidan.
Be warned, this is a heavy read and possibly not for those suffering depression although some may not feel so bad and could learn from Orford’s honesty.