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How to pronounce Dinah Jefferies: DIE-nuh JEFF-reez
Dinah Jeffries discusses The Tea Planter's Wife, and how her personal experiences - growing up in Malaysia, living in many parts of the world - inspired and effected her writing.
In your own words, can you introduce readers to the premise of The Tea Planter's Wife?
The novel is set on a tea plantation beside a misty lake in 1920s Ceylon. It's almost the end of the colonial era, and all the certainties of British life are changing. Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is the new bride of the plantation owner, Laurence, a wealthy and charming widower. But her idyllic dreams of marriage are shaken by echoes from the past—an old trunk of musty dresses, a hidden grave-stone in the grounds, and locked doors. Her new husband seems haunted by the past. When Gwen goes into labor, with Laurence away from the house, she is presented with a terrible choice—one she feels she must make without her husband's knowledge. Can she keep such a powerful secret? If not, can Laurence possibly forgive what she has done? As all the secrets unfold, her marriage to Laurence is threatened, as is the old colonial lifestyle. Ultimately, The Tea Planter's Wife is about what we feel we have to conceal from the people we love, and what happens when we do.
Can you tell us about your early childhood years in Malaysia, and how those memories have affected your writing? How did you handle the transition to life in England?
My fondest memory of growing up in Malaya is of the gardener shinning up the palm trees in our garden to cut down the coconuts. I loved Malaya and when we left to come and live in England I felt as if I'd left a piece of my heart in the tropics. When I was writing my first book, I was surprised by how many memories of Malaya came racing back: the bright yellow ice cream, the Chinese circus, and our holidays on tiny semi-deserted islands. But most of all it was the colors, the exotic scents, and the feel of the heat on my skin. It took me a very long time to get over leaving Malaya, and though I love England now, I certainly didn't back then. Writing has helped me deal with the issue of loss in my life though that wasn't what drove me. You have to dig deep when you write and that's what I do, but the little piece of me that still belongs to the East will never fade. I can't see myself ever setting my novels anywhere else.
You have lived all across the world. Can you tell us about some of your most memorable life experiences?
In the late 1960s I was an au pair for the Contessa Guicciardini Strozzi in San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy. I also spent time living in a musicians' commune (which included a number of cousins of Queen Elizabeth), as I was married to the lead singer of a rock 'n' roll band.
What prompted you to pursue a career in writing at this stage in your life?
I had no plans to be a writer, although I've always enjoyed reading and throughout my life have scribbled little bits and pieces. An entire novel seemed too vast a thing to undertake. But when we were living in a tiny mountain village in Southern Spain, I had time on my hands and it was too hot to go out. It was the ideal time to think about writing a novel, and so I worked out a plot and I began. It was as simple as that. I hadn't expected to fall in love with writing, but I did, and the discipline you need to write is not a problem for me. If you really want to write, you just do it. No excuses. If you fnd yourself continually not writing, then forget it.
Where did you find the inspiration for this particular story?
My late mother-in-law was born in India and her family included tea planters in India and Ceylon. The book was initially inspired by stories she told. After finishing research for my first novel, The Separation, which is set in Malaysia, I looked across the Bay of Bengal and spotted a little pearl drop in the India ocean: Sri Lanka, once a British colony known as Ceylon, and chose it as the location for my second book. I already had the idea for the core story—a life-changing secret—so it was just a case of going to Sri Lanka.
You visited a colonial tea plantation as part of your research for this novel. Can you tell us about that immersive experience?
In Sri Lanka, I fell in love with a misty tea plantation overlooking a lake in the central highlands. With evenings lit by fireflies and flaming torches, amidst a background of singing cicadas, it was so stunning I didn't want to leave. I spent my days fortified by endless cups of tea, and with my nose in a book from their extensive library. that reading gave me the detail that makes the book feel authentic. The colonial bungalows are not what you might imagine, but are unbelievably luxurious homes, some-times with two floors. While there I was given a guided tour of a working tea factory. As for the food, I remember egg hoppers—strange thin biscuit cups with an egg inside. Also buffalo curd—a wonderfully thick yogurt, which you ate with jaggery, a syrup I'd never heard of before.
Most exciting was when a ferocious monsoon began two days before we left, intensified by a cyclone farther north. It was amazing; you couldn't see your hand in front of your face and it washed the road away. The gardeners carried our luggage on their heads! We had to leave to come back to the United Kingdom in two outrigger canoes—well, at least to the point where the road had not been destroyed—one piled high with our luggage and another for my husband and me.
The Tea Planter's Wife tackles the issue of racism on several levels. How did you incorporate this topic into the novel, and how were you able to write from both sides of this complex issue?
I revealed it through the minor characters, partly because my heroine, Gwen, finds the racism hard to understand, and partly because her husband, Laurence, is more progressive than the other British colonials. It's a crucial aspect of the novel and impacts Gwen's life in the most tragic way. While I wanted to show the colonial racism that existed then, I had to make it palatable to a modern audience. So you're always balancing different needs: the need to be true to the past, the needs of a modern reader, and the needs of the story itself.
How have your experiences as a wife and parent influenced your portrayal of family dynamics within the novel?
The Tea Planter's Wife is about why we feel we have to keep secrets from the people we love, and what happens when we do. It's also about love and loss, and I drew on the shocking accidental death of my teenage son to write this part of the book. You always draw on your own feelings and experiences when you write and, in a way, it was quite cathartic. And yet, although my own son died, I felt that even worse would be not knowing what has happened to your children, so I drew on that tension and emotion for the novel.
What is your favorite kind of tea?
Oh dear! Good-quality builder's tea—but, of course, it must come from Ceylon!
Reproduced from the book club kit with permission of the publisher. Click to download full kit including reading group questions and information about tea.
Unless otherwise stated, this interview was conducted at the time the book was first published, and is reproduced with permission of the publisher. This interview may not be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the copyright holder.
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