Close encounters of the couple kind
How did you meet your life partner? I’m always curious to ask the question because of the fascinating interplay of chance and chemistry in how two individuals come to choose each […]
Remembrance of things paternal: Surpassing the ideal
I was a daddy’s girl. I still am, even though my father passed away almost eight years ago at the age of 95. He was my mentor as well as, for […]
Mazan: A typical Provençal village, or not?
Because Mazan is the setting for my memoir-novel X in Provence, I often get asked whether there is something about this village and the area around it is that spawns evil. […]
My true-life exposé of Mazan
The bizarre coincidence that my novel X in Provence takes place in Mazan in southern France – the same village where Gisèle Pelicot was repeatedly raped – still rubs me […]
Ditching shame: The Gisèle Pelicot effect
Sexual shame looms large in my novel, X in Provence, set by sheer if harrowing happenstance in Mazan, a village now sadly synonymous with rape. Rai, an ambitious journalist, moves […]
My Mazan: The reality and the fiction
I write this in emotional turmoil. I am struggling, like women the world over, to comprehend the mass rape of Gisèle Pelicot, drugged into unconsciousness by her husband and sexually […]
No snacking please, we’re French
There’s an etiquette to eating in France, which includes when you shouldn’t eat. “Mum, the family I’m staying with doesn’t snack,” my adolescent daughter told me, aghast. “I mean, […]
Couples and kids: The yes-no conundrum
You’ve met the golden one, the mate you reckon could be forever. And how wonderful, he’s into commitment, eager to build a loving life together. But then you hit a […]
Continental shifts and culture shock
Rai, the English adventurer in X in Provence, finds herself facing a new set of cultural phenomena when she moves countries, or rather continents, to be with her lover. Back in Europe from a long stint in Hong Kong, the extent of the culture shock she experiences comes….well, as rather a shock.
Self-esteem: Never Ever Enough
“Love yourself,” my parents used to say to me, “believe in yourself and you can do anything”. A truism worthy of a pedestal deserving of a dais. I grew up recognizing the divinity of these words. And yet… how do you manufacture confidence when you don’t have a stock of it, due to whatever reasons, and there are a multitude.