Cultivating a word garden
Words Luke Williamson | Photos Tracey Stevens
After a long and distinguished career in journalism, including working as a senior producer for the BBC World Service, Cliff Taylor has committed himself to a new path as a novelist. His fourth novel, The Spanish Garden, has just been published, and a fifth is on the way.
Travel has always been an important element in Cliff’s novels. “I travelled extensively for 15 years,” he says. “When you’re young, you tend to write about yourself and what you’re experiencing. However, by my third novel, I started to get away from that and I think I have succeeded with this latest book at creating autonomous characters who are not based on myself or anyone I know. They’re experiencing things I haven’t. As you get older, you have more experiences to draw on, and a better understanding of people and relationships. That makes you a better writer.”
The Spanish Garden is set in present-day and historical Kaipara, and the 1930s Spanish civil war. Having visited Spain often and lived in Barcelona for some time, Cliff had a strong interest in the country’s history. “I knew I wanted to write about it at some point, but the key was trying to connect it to New Zealand,” he explains. “The idea of a young man growing up in rural Kaipara, going away overseas and becoming involved in world-changing events was very personal to me.”
Cliff says the main theme of the book is the inter-generational legacy of war and how
the traumas of war are passed down. The story involves digging up the past, including literally as bones are being disinterred in Spain and consideration is given to the burial of the dead from Māori wars around the Kaipara region.
Cliff spent lockdown 2020 writing the novel in a friend’s backyard caravan just outside Matakana. “I had a very strong idea in my mind of what I was going to write. I’d done a lot of research and had all the characters worked out, and it was based around Leigh, but I just couldn’t get going.”
Out of sheer frustration, Cliff started on a new story, the bare bones of which had been sitting in a journal for probably 10 years. His eyes light up as he says, “Out came the first 1000 words, and that was it, I was away and never looked back. The rest of the story flowed almost effortlessly. The characters started taking on lives of their own and I just followed along. I’ve never experienced anything quite like that before and it was wonderful. That’s why I knew it was going to be a good story.”
When not writing, Cliff works as a gardener. “I love it. Gardening allows plenty of time
to think and I’ve included gardening in this novel. The natural environment is a huge part of my writing. The ebb and flow of the tide in the Kaipara harbour is an integral part of this story.”
The great outdoors also resonates for Cliff because he is a keen runner. “I process my stories when I’m running and I think of ways to describe what I’m seeing – the light on the water, the way trees look in the sun, that sort of thing. Without running, it would be more difficult. It’s my therapy.”
The first draft of Cliff’s new novel is complete and all he’s willing to divulge at this stage is it’s about a doctor and set on the east coast. “I’m desperate to get back to it,” he says, “but I’m focussing on promoting The Spanish Garden right now.”
The Spanish Garden is available in all good bookstores, including Matakana Village Books, or at Nationwide Books.