The November Promise

Paula Xiberras

Fiona McIntosh is a prolific author. Last year she thrilled us with her blockbuster ‘The Lavender Keeper’ and this year the long awaited sequel ‘French Promise’ will be released.

‘The French Promise’ continues the story of Luc and Lizette post war and now building a life together in the UK and later in a lavender farm in Tasmania. Fiona travelled widely in her research for this book, as well as in her beloved Tasmania, she even even spent time studying lighthouses in England to prepare for the scenes in the book when Luc works as a lighthouse keeper in the UK.

I conclude perhaps incorrectly that Fiona has selected his career for Luc to symbolise the fact the war is over and there is the light of hope in the world. I decide to ask Fiona my question, prompted by a discussion with Morris Gleitzman, about the ‘magic places’ where author and reader meet and bring their life experiences to a book and make their own meaning from that. Fiona said that she was looking for the loneliest job in the world for Luc, but that it is possible that she may have been thinking about the other meaning also.

Fiona found writing the second book that even though the war was over there was still plenty of conflict and tension between the many characters, all of them in some way damaged by their experiences during the war. I ask Fiona if there was a potential for a third in the series and she says to do that would mean taking the story into the 70s and 80s and on and she isn’t that comfortable about writing about that period but if someone were to twist her arm …

This novel also has what Fiona calls ‘shock slips’ where events are seemingly dictated by the characters themselves in spite of her own wishes. Some of these events may shock her readers but Fiona assures me they happen as they are meant to.

One of the saddest things in the novel is the prologue and something that dumped on her heart in one great lump, and a outpouring of the pain of humanity was her writing of the Auschwitz scenes. In the sadness there is admiration for the defiance and bravery of characters not to give in. To balance these scenes there is also the continuation of the beautifully written romance we expect from Fiona.

Fiona’s book may be called ‘The French Promise’ but when I spoke to Fiona we also discussed another promise. Fiona tells me it involves her publishing another book in November. The novel is an intimate story rather than a sprawling saga and is even described as domestic, much quieter than her customary cast of characters.

That may seem very soon to be doing another book, but Fiona explains to me it is a promise she made to Bryce Courtney. Fiona was Bryce’s protege and at a recent meeting he asked Fiona to talk before the students, as an example of a successful writer that had put in the hard yards and was now enjoying success. Bryce asked that Fiona would continue his tradition of bringing out a new book every November, a task he has done for 25 years.

Fiona says her special memory of Bryce was a recent one when they went walking together and then both spontaneously burst into laughter it’s a beautiful memory she holds dear and Fiona has dedicated ‘The French Promise’ to Bryce and promises him that she will continue his tradition.

Fiona has also another book to be published in March next year, this time based on an amazing British event that is not so well known to people outside of England. Much to her editor’s amazement Fiona is going to weave the story into into one of her fantasy novels.

Talking of the cast of characters in Fiona’s novel I ask her does she hope the book will be made into a movie and when might that happen? She says it may get a step closer when the novel is released in Britain and her choice for a pivotal male character for The Lavender Keeper … Daniel Craig!

Fiona will be talking about her new book in an event sponsored by Dymocks on Thursday 11 April at the Royal Yacht Club Tasmania, Sandy Bay.