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Lauren St John |
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Lauren St John was born in Gatooma, Rhodesia, now Kadoma, Zimbabwe, in December 1966. After studying journalism in Africa, she moved to London, where she was for many years golf correspondent to The Sunday Times.
She is the author of several biographies on sport and music, including Hardcore Troubadour: The Life & Near Death of Steve Earle. Her acclaimed first children’s novel, The White Giraffe, was published in 2006 and has been optioned for film by Walden Media. Her latest book is Rainbow's End (2007).
Lauren St John, author of Rainbow's End, talks to penguin.co.uk about African sunrises, Cote d'Or chocolate and why she loves Jane Eyre.
Who or what always puts a smile on your face?
African sunrises, horses, and my three godchildren would be right up there.
What are you reading at the moment?
Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom by Roger Pearson.
I can’t possibly name just one, but if forced to choose I’d say Mark Twain and Charlotte Bronte. The living author I most admire is Alexander McCall Smith, because in person he is so generous, funny and intelligent, and because in Mma Ramotswe, his character in The Ladies No.1 Detective Agency series, he’s captured the particular warmth, humour and strength of spirit which is unique to African women - the sort of women who rarely seem to make it onto the evening news.
What’s your earliest memory?
Going to the circus in Rhodesia, aged two and a half. I caught a rare virus, ended up in intensive care in the Salisbury Hospital for Infectious Diseases and nearly died.
What is your greatest fear?
Losing people or animals I love.
How would you like to be remembered?
With a smile.
Have you ever done something you’ve really regretted?
Plenty of things, but I try, not always successfully, to be philosophical about them. It’s true that regret is a wasted emotion.
How do you spoil yourself?
I invite one (or some) of my closest friends over and cook up copious quantities of garlic prawns or a vat of smoked haddock chowder and watch Curb Your Enthusiasm, or I buy a new book that’s pretty much guaranteed to be a page-turner (usually a classic or a thriller) and lie on the sofa with it all weekend, eating bars of Cote d’Or chocolate.
What’s your favourite word?
Heaven
Favourite book?
Jane Eyre. For me, it’s the perfect novel and she’s the perfect character.
Who (or what) do you turn to in a crisis?
God. I wrote Rainbow’s End during one of the toughest times of my life and I spent the last four and a half months of it in almost total isolation. I loved every minute of the writing of it, but the intensity of it and the solitude had me climbing the walls by the end. Had it not been for my agent, Catherine Clarke, and my editor at Hamish Hamilton, Judy Moir, who had this insane faith in me, my extremely patient friends, my sister Lisa and, most of all, my own faith in God, I don’t think I could have done it.
What makes you angry?
Cruelty to children or animals.
Which country would you most like to visit?
Tibet
What’s your worst vice?
Procrastination
Where do you write?
Mostly at my desk in my apartment in London. The most inspiring place I’ve ever written in was a room with huge skylight windows on the top floor of a house overlooking Porthmeor Beach in St Ives. I worked on my synopsis for Rainbow’s End there and wrote parts of chapters when I had no idea whether or not I’d ever find a publisher for it. I also wrote a great deal of my first children’s novel, The White Giraffe. There was something about that incredible clean, salty air, the noisy seagulls and the waves crashing below that meant you couldn’t be anything but creative. The clotted cream scones also helped.
