TEN WORDS OR FEWER INTERVIEW: Bonar Ash, author of My Heart In Hiding

Join us for another instalment of TEN WORDS OR FEWER, where this week Bonar Ash, author of My Heart Is Hiding, responds to a range of questions with some very short answers! Read on below!

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Q: What is the title of your book?
A: My Heart in Hiding

Q: Why did you choose this title?
A: It’s relevant to the novel’s theme

Q: What’s the book about?
A: Heartache, endurance, otherness

Q: Why did you write this book?
A: The themes of the novel are deeply personal to me

Q: And why now?
A: Time allowed me enough distance to see things whole

Q: Who is your favourite character (real or imagined!) in the book and why?
A: Zeph, because of the pain she endures, being gay then

Q: Describe the ideal reader of your book.
A: Someone thoughtful, man or woman

Q: Why do you write, generally?
A: I can’t help it

Q: Where/how do you write?
A: In my local café, the more chaos surrounding me the better

Q: As a writer, what is the biggest challenge you face?
A: Wavering self-belief

Q: Are you working on any new projects?
A: My next novel, ‘Too Close to the Sun’

Q: What/who you do read?
A: Jane Gardam, Jean Rhys, Emily Dickinson, Elsbeth Barker

Q: Why do you read?
A: To escape, admire, learn

Q: Where/when you do read?
A: In bed, last thing before sleep

Q: How do you relax?
A: Walking in nature, Tai Chi, cooking

Q: Are we alone in the universe?
A: I don’t believe so

Q: Do you listen to music?
A: Not enough

Q: What differentiates us from the animals?
A: Reasoning, language, self-awareness

Q: Do you have a mantra? If willing, please share.
A: Thank you

Q: When was the last time you climbed a tree?
A: Last year

Q: What’s the best decision you’ve ever made?
A: To decide to be happy

Q: Do you like routine or spontaneity?
A: Routine

Q: What do you need to thrive?
A: Enough solitude

Q: What do you need to survive?
A: To write

Q: How do you nourish yourself on a psychological level?
A: Tai chi, meditation, walking in nature, reading poetry

Q: What makes you laugh?
A: ‘The Queen of the Tambourine’ by Jane Gardam

Q: What makes you cry?
A: My spiritual inadequacy

Q: Do you have a favourite place? Where is it?
A: The crook of a tree by the river

Q: What is a soul?
A: The eternal essence of ourself

Q: Have you ever seen a monkey in the wild? If yes, where were you?
A: In Mauritius

Q: Describe your hairstyle.
A: Too long

Q: What’s your favourite item of clothing?
A: My bra

Q: What is the scariest thing?
A: Human cruelty

Q: What’s the most painful meal you’ve had?
A: Breakfast with a dying friend

Q: How often do you buy groceries?
A: Almost every day

Q: What’s a skill you would love to have, but don’t imagine you’ll ever have the time (or money!) to get it?
A: Speaking perfect French

Q: What’s the last book you read? How was it?
A: ‘Humankind’ by Rutger Bregman. Hopeful and cheering.

Q: Do you prefer writing by hand or typing? And does this depend on what you’re writing?
A: First draft longhand, then laptop

Q: Are you a lucky person?
A: Well, I work hard so I must be

Q: George Michael sang, “You’ve got to have faith.” Was he right?
A: Depends absolutely on what you choose to have faith in

Q: What, in your opinion, is unforgivable? Especially if your answer is “nothing”, please explain your reasoning.
A: Depends on who is doing the forgiving

Q: What’s the largest body of water you have gone swimming in?
A: The Indian Ocean

Q: Do you have a favourite piece of furniture? What is it and why?
A: Stool whose tapestry top my mother worked

Q: How often do you look in the mirror?
A: Too often, out of insecurity

Q: What was your most recent epiphany? If you’ve never had one, why do you think that is?
A: A liar respects truth. A bullshitter is indifferent to it.

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More on My Heart In Hiding:

Book description.

Love can truly last a lifetime. When Ella Maitland, naïve, homesick and hopelessly innocent, sets eyes on moody, glamorous Leo Lambton, she has no idea of the force that has been set in train or of the love that will never let her go. 

Sent home from the tropics following the death of her parents, Ella arrives at her English boarding school ignorant of English customs and schoolgirl ways, and finds herself floundering. Invited home by schoolfriend Zeph she encounters Leo, Zeph’s brother, and from then on the Lambtons become her lifeline. Woefully ignorant and constantly upstaged by attractive, amoral Pamela who wants Leo for herself, she navigates her teenage years, finding solace in painting for which she discovers she has a unique talent. 

Tragedy strikes and Ella finds herself brutally separated from the Lambtons and from Leo. Heartbroken, she lives her life as an artist feeling that a part of herself is missing. Surrounded by friends and dedicating herself to her work she puts on a cheerful face, but under the brave smiles her heart still burns with love for the man she knows she can never forget.

The novel is available on Amazon UK:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Heart-Hiding-Bonar-Ash/dp/B0FTB4N439

Author Bio:

Although writing is my passion, I’ve had fun in my time being a painter, ice skater, hypnotherapist and singer of mediaeval madrigals. I am happiest writing in a crowded café with as much life as possible going on around me. My writing time is balanced by long tramps round the lovely Hampshire countryside. ‘Never live more than five minutes away from a bottle of milk,’ was the helpful advice given to me when I moved twelve years ago to the beautiful Hampshire town where I am lucky enough to live. I took the advice and found a cottage minutes from the village centre, backing onto trees and a lake where birds and wild life abound. Coincidentally, a little wicket gate at the bottom of my garden leads straight into the garden of the pub next door, a fact greatly appreciated by my three grown-up sons when they come to visit.

​I was born in St Kitts in the West Indies and moved to Mauritius at the age of seven, where I ran about barefoot and blissful until condemned at the age of thirteen to shoes and boarding school in England – a cultural shock it took years to recover from. Escape came in the form of interior landscapes and imaginary people. I wrote my first full-length novel, The Treasure Hunt, aged ten, sitting on a beach in Mauritius listening to the waves lapping the shore. The book, hopelessly badly written but huge fun to write, had a large cast of child characters who kept me company in my rather solitary life. 

I studied English at St Andrews University, followed later in life by a degree in fine art at UCA leading to a long period of working as a painter. But writing, then and always, continues to be my first love.

Website: www.bonarash.com

Email: bonar@bonarash.com

Instagram: @bonarashwriter

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CAuknh2au/

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