I sold Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree in a two book deal to Hodder & Stoughton. Having loved writing about Argentina, I decided to base my next book in Chile, where my mother’s side of the family live. My mother grew up in Argentina and Brazil, but her first cousin married a man who worked in Chile and settled there. I have lots of relations now all over Chile and spent time there before going to Argentina, so I felt I knew it well enough to write about it.
In contrast to the hot, humid pampa, Chile’s coast is cooler with a damp sea mist that is sucked inland when it is very hot in Santiago. I decided to base half in Cornwall where we used to go as children on summer holidays and half in Cachagua, a divine little village of thatched cottages on the coast of Chile. I enjoyed writing about the two very different cultures and decided to continue in that vein.
The theme of Ombu was belonging, for The Butterfly Box I decided to write about possessiveness. I have always believed that we are all here on our own spiritual paths and that no one owns anyone else. How many parents feel they own their children? How many try to control them and make them do things they want them to do, without leaving them to make their own decisions and be themselves? How many couples stifle each other with neediness and possessiveness? I had a two and a half year relationship with a very possessive man. As unpleasant as it ultimately was, I learned a great deal. I learned that people treat you according to how you allow yourself to be treated. I learned that I could have (and should have) walked away at any time, but I didn’t. It takes courage. I explored all of these things in the book. Certainly, in my opinion, happiness comes from giving one another the freedom to be ourselves – and the space in which to do it!
