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Kaipara Harbour, 2016. Sidney King is preparing to mark his 100th birthday in his garden overlooking the water when, on the other side of world, volunteers disinterring the skeletons of victims of the Spanish Civil War discover a locket, unearthing long-held secrets …
So begins The Spanish Garden, the fourth novel by Leigh-based author and journalist Cliff Taylor.
Set on a single day, it features both real time developments and flashbacks to episodes in a lifetime going back nine decades. And the secrets are buried not only in Spain, where a young Sidney fought as a volunteer, but also back home, in his Kaipara garden.
The predominant theme, Taylor says, is “the legacy of war and intergenerational trauma of war”.
“It could be any war – the Musket Wars between the northern tribes in the 1820s, or the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, or what’s happening in Ukraine today. Those things don’t go away, and they’re often buried just beneath the surface, and that’s part of the secret of the land where the main character, Sidney King, lives.”
Beyond the 12000 miles separating them, Spain and Kaipara seem worlds apart, yet these two locations provide a compelling setting for the story.
Taylor, who for a time owned an olive grove in Catalonia, says he has had a strong interest in Spain for many years.
“I wanted to tell a story about the Spanish Civil War because it was a part of history that fascinated me.
But I also wanted to try to connect it to New Zealand in some way, and particularly the Kaipara, which I find an incredibly evocative place.
“The idea of a young man going from a rural backwater in New Zealand, which Kaipara is, and becoming involved in huge international events such as the Spanish Civil War – which is what a lot of New Zealand men have done during wartime.
“I was drawing those two locations and two ideas together into one story and basing it on one man’s life.”
Taylor, who attended Mahurangi College, spent part of his childhood on a farm in Makarau in the Kaipara, “the sort of place you can really fall in love with”.
“It’s a huge harbour and has these massive tides which come in and out. It empties the harbour and fills it every day and it became a part of the rhythm of life. That becomes quite a strong structural element in the book – it almost becomes the beating heart or pulse. Things happen with the outgoing and incoming tides.”
Feedback on the book so far has been strongly positive, with many readers reporting finishing it in two or three sittings. Taylor hopes readers will find the novel “a work of art, something beautiful”.
“Even though I describe some horrific images I think it’s important also to acknowledge the beauty of places like Kaipara, and Spain,” he says. “It’s also an anti-war book, and I think that comes across.”
Taylor, whose travels have taken him from working for an NGO in Uganda to criss-crossing India on a classic Royal Enfield motorcycle, has worked for news outlets including Britain’s The Independent and the BBC World Service’s Africa department.
He is now working on a new novel, set in contemporary New Zealand, though also with flashbacks, and “it’s got a gardening theme as well. I can’t get away from gardening”.
Indeed, when not writing, Taylor works as a gardener, since “it’s hard to make a living as a writer”. He also enjoys trail running and his “beautiful” Moto Guzzi motorcycle, “which I rarely ride because it’s always bloody raining”.
Living in the fishing village of Leigh appeals, because he likes places that feel like they’re out of time, or in a different time.
“Kaipara is like that to me,” he says, “It’s like stepping back in time when you drive out there on Highway 12 and get out to all those small areas. Leigh is a little bit like that as well.”
Cliff Taylor’s The Spanish Garden (Quentin Wilson Publishing) is available via the following link:
https://tinyurl.com/2p962rh6
Book Giveaway
Mahurangi Matters has a copy of The Spanish Garden to give away. Simply email editor@localmatters.co.nz with Spanish Garden in the subject line, before midday on July 14. Don’t forget to include a daytime phone number.
