Writers Abroad Magazine Issue 3 September 2015 | Page 9

WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE

Author Interview
Paola Fornari interviews author FELICITY TIMCKE
Felicity, welcome to the third edition of our Writers Abroad magazine. You too
are a writer abroad: tell us a bit about that. First of all, the “abroad” part... when
and why did you leave your home country of South Africa, and what made you
choose to settle in Turkey, where you now live?
When my husband and I were newly married, the Soviet Union “crumbled” and there
were many opportunities to go to these strange and distant lands, to discover these
“newly independent” Soviet countries. Being young and adventurous, our first REAL
journey abroad was to Uzbekistan where I spearheaded a Library project, the first
English Library in the country. Books were heavily censored during Soviet times so,
bringing in 30 000 English books was quite sensational. I loved it! English scholars of
all ages would look at the boxes of books lying open, waiting to be processed and
packed on shelves, some with tears in their eyes—seeing and touching works by
Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Ernest Hemmingway, Stephen King…
the most eclectic gamut of tastes I have ever seen, for the first time. This was in 1991
and we have been in and out of suitcases and countries ever since. Much like many
of the members of Writers Abroad.
Our love affair with Turkey also started in the 90s when we bought a house in
Gumusluk, on the Bodrum Peninsula. We finally moved to this house six months ago
—a goal we have been working towards for years now. We love everything about
being there: the views, the weather, the people, the food, the colourful markets.
Istanbul is only about an hour away (by plane) and that, as many of you may know, is
a spectacular city. We love it!
On to the writing now: when did you start writing?
I started writing a diary from the first day I moved abroad. I wanted to capture the
newness of everything in words. I would carry my “little black book” everywhere, writing
down keywords that would remind me of the sounds, sights and smells I would
experience. There were so many new things. Taking photos was often out of the
question because these post-soviet countries did not allow pictures to be taken, so I
had to resort to painting my own pictures with words.
Last year you published your first book: Silk, Spices, Veils and Vodka. Fabulous
title; what's it about?
I wanted to share all my new experiences with my family and friends at home and,
while Facebook, Twitter and all those social networks were not as easily accessible
as they are today, I wrote letters. I would write a letter every month, this would be sent
home—not always an easy process since the postal systems of the Soviet Union and
countries further afield were not all that efficient. We would give these letters to people
flying out of the country to post when they landed. My father would keep a huge map
of the world on his wall, marking each country’s postal stamp with a coloured pin.
Anyway, back to my book, I continued to write letters all the way through my
experiences in Uzbekistan, England, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Mozambique…
9|September 2015