TEN WORDS OR FEWER INTERVIEW: Barbara Adair, author of In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw

Barbara Adair, author of In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw – a book which I adored when I read it in 2023 – has been invited to take part in TriumphOfTheNow.com‘s “Ten Words or Fewer” interview format!

Read on below!

Q: What is the title of your book?
A: In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw

Q: Why did you choose this title?
A: For all the (possibly pretentious) writer-ly reasons (this is what a writer is supposed to do right?): the double meaning of words – shadows are both beautiful and menacing, and Springs, the town, fresh water rising from the earth, the movement of water and the paths it creates or ….

But I also like it as it has a lyricism.

Q: What’s the book about?
A: The book is made up of stories of the people that live in the Art Deco buildings of Springs, a town to the East of Johannesburg. These buildings were originally built by European immigrants who came to South Africa after the Second World War to build a better life. Here they built a home from home, a familiar home, Art Deco was in fashion at that time, in a country that was not their own, that was alien. Now different immigrants live in this town. They too are immigrants. They come, mainly, from Africa and Asia, and have come to find a better life. And these immigrants have built a home in what is not their heritage, they accommodate, appropriate and make it familiar to them.

Q: Why did you write this book?
A: I went to Springs and loved the buildings, then I began to read up on architectural design, Art Deco is known as the ‘bastard child of modernism’, it arose at a time of depression, but at the same time consumerist delights, so it was cheap to build but lavishly decorated. But mostly I loved roaming the streets, looking at the buildings and talking to the people who live there. What were their stories?

Q: And why now?
A: South Africa is filled with white people who complain that ‘our’ heritage is being destroyed. By this they mean that they do not want to accept and embrace change, they wish things were the way they always were. I wanted to write a book about how ‘heritage’ is not being destroyed, it is changing. I wanted to challenge this narrative of complaint and nostalgia. I wanted to develop a new narrative, one of celebration.

For me change is far nobler than permanence, without it things will decay. Things that are able to change will last.

Q: Why do you write, generally?
A: For fun. It is interesting and enjoyable and a great way to exercise the brain.

Q: Where/how do you write?
A: Anywhere. I write in my flat in Joburg. I am currently on Lamu Island, Kenya and so I writing on the open air balcony looking at the ocean.

Q: Are you working on any new projects?
A: Not really. Is AI taking over? I have a book on bridges, the people who built them, cross them, think about them, that will be published towards the end of the year. I also have a self-published an experimental one coming about a road trip to Namibia. I also like creating thread art, embroidering.

Q: What/who do you read?
A: Fiction. All sorts from everywhere, from anytime and on anything.

Q: Why do you read?
A: What else is there to do?

Q:Where/when you do read?
A: Anytime. But always when sitting, never lying down, or on a bed.

Q: What are your politics/values?
A: People are valuable. All people must be respected no matter what they look like or what their culture is. I try not to judge, it’s tricky, but I think the only time for judgement is when people do harm to others.

Q: Why might someone with oppositional politics/values enjoy your book? If they wouldn’t, do you regret that?
A: I would hope that they enjoy the stories and love the pictures. I would hope that they then are able to think differently to what they previously thought. But if not, well, it is what it is.

Q: Describe the ideal reader of your book.
A: You and I.

Q: How do you relax?
A: I read, write and sew art.

Q: Are we alone in the universe?
A: Who knows?

Q: Do you listen to music?
A: The music of the streets; at the moment it is the call to prayer, the braying of donkeys and the yowling of cats.

Q: What differentiates us from the animals?
A: Not much. I am a vegetarian. I don’t kill to eat for we all, animals and people, have friends and family that would mourn our death.

Q: Do you have a mantra? If willing, please share.
A: No.

Q: What is your preferred breakfast – something you could have every day?
A: Coffee and toast.

Q: What’s the highest altitude you’ve been to on land? (i.e. not in a plane)
A: The Bale Mountains in Ethiopia. They reach up to 4,000 meters, or 14,000 feet.

Q: What’s the largest animal you’ve seen running free?
A: An elephant.

Q: Which film/movie[s] from the past five years do you think will be future classics?
A: The Sheltering Sky, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. My existential phase.

Q: Do you have any pets? Why/why not?
A: No. Where would they go to when I travel.

Q: Where is somewhere you’ve been to that you will never return to? Why?
A: I can’t think of any place that I would not return to. Possibly the America.

Q: When was the last time you climbed a tree?
A: 50 years ago.

Q: How often do you swim?
A: Seldom.

Q: What happened the last time you went on a first date?
A: No idea it was so long ago. In fact have I ever been on a first date?

Q: What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?
A: To never tie myself to anything, anyone or any place.

Q: Would you relive your life as a spectator if you could?
A: No.

Q: What is “cool”?
A: Who knows.

Q: Do you like routine or spontaneity?
A: Routine. I like to plan, change the plan and then plan the changed plan.

Q: What do you need to thrive?
A: Change.

Q: What do you need to survive?
A: Change.

Q: How do you nourish yourself on a psychological level?
A: I read.

Q: What makes you laugh?
A: When I am with those I love. We humour each other.

Q: What makes you cry?
A: The state of the world.

Q: Do you have a favourite place? Where is it?
A: No. I go to a lot of places.

Q: What don’t you eat?
A: Dead flesh.

Q: How did your oldest friendship begin?
A: We were lovers.

Q: What is a soul?
A: Something that does not die … for the soul there is neither birth nor death nor having one been does it ever cease to be.

Q: Have you ever been on a pilgrimage? If yes, where to? (Non-religious fine e.g. Abbey Road pedestrian crossing)
A: Lots. Tangier to seek Paul Bowles. St Petersburg to seek Anna Akhmatova. Once, when I was writing a book on Rimbaud, I went to Harar in Ethiopia. He went there to become a coffee (some say also slave) trader when he abandoned Paris, Verlaine and writing.

Q: Are you trained in first aid?
A: No.

Q: Have you ever written any songs? If yes, describe your sound.
A: No.

Q: What’s the biggest thing you’ve personally destroyed?
A: Many mosquitos.

Q: What are your weekend plans? Are these typical?
A: I don’t know.

Q: Have you ever seen a monkey in the wild? If yes, where were you?
A: Yes, many. In South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, India, Japan etc.

Q: Describe your hairstyle.
A: Short and silver.

Q: What’s your favourite item of clothing?
A: Scarves.

Q: If you could meet a historical figure for a chat over a beverage, who would it be and why? And what would the beverage be?
A: Yukio Mishima; I enjoy his works, wonder his fervent nationalism and his belief in the divinity of the emperor and imagine the courage it takes to commit ritual seppuku. We would drink Saki.

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Bio:
Barbara Adair is a writer with published experience in the following areas: fiction – novels and short stories, travel articles, book reviews and academic articles.
She also does part time work at the University of the Witwatersrand, the Soweto Book Café, SAE College and in Lamu, Kenya.
She previously practised as an attorney litigating on human rights issues, and thereafter taught at the Wits School of Public and Development Management.

Qualifications:
BA (Hons.) LLB (University of the Witwatersrand)
PhD (University of Pretoria)

Novels published:
In Tangier We Killed the Blue Parrot, Jacana, 2005, a fictional account of the lives of Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles in Tangier, reprinted in 2020 by Modjaji Books.
Short listed for the Sunday Times Fiction award, 2005.

END, Jacana, 2009, a pastiche based on the movie Casablanca set in Johannesburg and Maputo.
Short listed for the African Regional Commonwealth Prize, 2010.

WILL, the Passenger Delaying Flight ….., Modjaji Books, 2020, a man is travelling to Africa from Europe. Stories about waiting – waiting for Africa, and interspersed with this are stories of people in the airport.
Long Listed for the NIHSS literary award, 2020, and the Sunday Times Fiction award, 2021.

In the Shadow of the Springs I Saw, Modjaji Books, 2022, an exploration the of stories of people who live in the Art Deco buildings of Springs. It is the imagined lives of those who live in a space which is not theirs historically but one which they have reclaimed. This work, in times of doom and complaint, creates a new narrative; one of revival, vigour and celebration.
Short listed for the NIHSS literary award, 2024
Long listed for the Sunday Times Fiction award, 2023.

Newspaper and magazine articles in: Intima, the Journal of Narrative medicine, Colombia University (NYC), Sensitive Skin, online magazine, (NYC) Sunday Independent (South Africa), Sunday Times (South Africa), Weekender (South Africa), Horizon (British Airways), Selamtra (Ethiopian Airways)

Short Stories in: New Contrast Literary Journal (South Africa), From the Great Wall to the Grand Canyon (US publication), Queer Africa – New and Collected Fiction: A collection of Southern African short stories. (Winner of the LAMDA (USA) prize for collected stories.), Queer Africa 2, a collection of queer Southern African short stories (finalist for the LAMDA (USA – awards 2018), Walking the Tightrope – Poetry and prose by LGBTQ writers from Africa (USA).

Purchasing link: Lead Us Not: Amazon.co.uk: Heenan, Duncan: 9781804399415: Books

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“Ten Words or Fewer” gives writers (novelists, poets, essayists, playwrights, screenwriters, anyone writing anything else) the opportunity to introduce themselves and their work. If interested in taking part, email triumphofthenow@gmail.com for more details.

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