The Delicate Magic Of Life

The Delicate Magic of Life is an historical novel in two parts. It follows existences that were once the lifestyles of the aborigines of Malaysia and the saffron growers of East Anglia. In Salvador's Bowl Lola, orphaned during the Spanish Civil War, settles in Malaya in 1948 during the time of the terrorist campaign. There she learns to understand the power of dreams, and the psyche of the aborigines, which saves her family from a terrorist outrage. Her daughter, Isabella, buys a seventeenth century dwelling in Essex that was once the home of the saffron-growing Swane family. The Saffron Garden follows the Swane family, through the English Civil War, to its extinction, and Isabella's interest in saffron takes her to Spain, back to her roots, where the trade in saffron continues. The novel is about the human virtue of tolerance, and the defence of tradition amidst civil strife. It is atonement for the silent races. In the dust where we have buried the silent races and their abominations we have buried so much of the delicate magic of life (D.H.Lawrence)