Bryony's Blog

   My elderly friend and I are discussing the possibility of becoming gold dealers.  It seems everyone is at it these days.  I recently contacted someone who did some work on our driveway a couple of years ago and discovered he no longer does crazy paving; instead, he has become a gold dealer in Esigodeni. I imagine him meeting customers in the back room of some shabby establishment or drawing up next to them in the car park of some shebeen and handing over a bag of gold nuggets in exchange for large wads of money.  'You'd never do it,' says my friend.  'You'd be caught almost immediately.' I must say, I am a little offended.  I don't particularly want to be a gold dealer, but nor do I like being told I lack the ability to be one. However, I know what she means.  I'd be too nice.  Of course, that might just be my  modus operandi.   It would certainly provide a good cover and it save me the need to meet clients in dodgy hotels i...

Sunday, April 15, 2018 'This September Sun' in Art This September Sun (Catherine Phillips) ' Nothing is Certain' is an exhibition of twelve experimental abstract paintings by Catherine Phillips based on book titles. The exhibition, which is part of a wider project celebrating books and libraries, is at Putney Library, Disraeli Road, in London until 27th April 2018. One of the paintings is inspired by Bryony Rheam's novel This September Sun , which is published by amaBooks in Zimbabwe, by Parthian Books in the United Kingdom, by Longhorn in Kenya and, soon, by Al Arabi in Arabic. The Zimbabwean cover of the book is based on a painting by the Zimbabwean artist Jeanette Johnstone. The books celebrated in the exhibition are: Designing with Natural Forms by Natalie d’Arbeloff Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys Rhapsody in Green by Charlotte Mendelsohn Spirals in Time by Helen Scales Sunquakes by J. B. Zirker The B...

Bryony was born in Kadoma, Zimbabwe, in 1974. She spent most of her childhood in and around Bulawayo, leaving in 1993 to go to the UK. She returned to Zimbabwe in 2001 where she spent the next eight years working as an English teacher. In 2008, Bryony moved firstly to Ndola in Zambia and then to Solwezi. Bryony has had a number of short stories published in various anthologies of Zimbabwean writing, and in 2009, her first novel, This September Sun , was published in Zimbabwe by amaBooks. This September Sun won the Zimbabwe Publishers Best First Book Award in 2010 and was published in the UK in March 2012 by Parthian. In May 2012, it reached number 1 on Amazon Kindle sales. She lives with her partner, John, and their two daughters. OOA: Where do you currently live? BR: I recently moved back to Bulawayo after living in Zambia for seven years. Despite the economic situation here in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo is still a great place to live in. OOA: Which writer(s) have in...

Africa is a big place.   Really big.   When you fly over it, you get a sense of its immenseness; everything from cities to mile upon mile of open ground.   In turn, it is easy to feel very small and insignificant, a mere dot on the landscape.                 As a writer in Africa, it is also easy to feel a sense of that aloneness.   I live in a small mining town called Solwezi in north-western Zambia.   If there are any other writers here, I certainly have not met them and I am not sure how I would.   There are no writers’ groups advertised, no literary events take place - and no one seems to be particularly perturbed. After all, why should they be?   Writing is a solitary job, isn’t it?   It’s just you and your notepad or your laptop.   What else do you need?                 I am sure...

I think one of the hardest things about writing a novel is convincing others you are up to the job.   For some reason, saying you want to be a writer is akin to saying you want to be an astronaut or a brain surgeon.   You get that look – you know the one adults use with children?   Oh, that’s nice! And really you know they’re inwardly shaking their heads or, worse, they’ve already dismissed the thought so that, the next time you mention it, you either get a blank stare or that look my mother used to give me when I insisted on doing something she didn’t like – Well, we’ll speak to your father about it, but I doubt he’ll like it either.                 Zimbabwe had descended into complete economic and political chaos while I was in the throes of writing This September Sun and suddenly everyone was writing their memoirs: the war years, the years on the farm, their years in Africa.   I rem...

Agatha and I go back a long way.  As a child, my grandmother was an avid reader of her novels and when I went to the library to change my gran's books for her, I was often asked to pick up an Agatha Christie or two.  So it was that I became familiar with many of her titles and the covers of the Fontana paperback editions of her books (there were the odd Crime Club editions as well).  We also went to watch film versions of Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun and Endless Night.  I was absolutely scared stiff and remember having difficulty going to sleep afterwards!  We would watch television adaptations of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot as a family.  No one answered the phone and any visitors at the door were viewed with impatient disdain.  During the adverts, someone would rush out and make a cup of tea and then rush back, often asking frantically 'What did I miss?  Did I miss anything?' The first Christie I read ...

Bryony Rheam's novel 'This September Sun', first published in Zimbabwe, last week reached the number 1 spot in the UK Kindle store, the contemporary fiction chart AND the historical fiction chart -ahead of Dan Brown, The Great Gatsby....

Tendai Huchu reviews This September Sun ‘On the 18 th  of April 1980, my grandfather burnt the British flag.’ So begins Bryony Rheam’s genre blending debut novel. Ellie, the main protagonist, is a young girl searching for identity in the self-absorbed, often neurotic postcolonial settler community in Zimbabwe. Her relationship with Evelyn, her grandmother whose cupboard has more skeletons than most, provides a back drop to a narrative that sweeps right from the Second World War through to the early 2000’s. Evelyn leaves her husband, Ellie’s grandfather, and strikes out on her own late in life, forming a new partnership with Miles, a man with his own difficult past, trying to eke a living on a small dust bowl outside of Bulawayo. Through Ellie’s observations we learn of the lives of the small closeted, white Zimbabwean society, dirty laundry is aired, nothing is spared, the illicit affairs, alcoholism, racism, misogyny, hopes, dreams and fears that linger long after...

Spanish Book Club discussion of 'This September Sun' Beaven Tapureta reports for WIN Zimbabwe on the Spanish Book Club discussion of Bryony Rheam’s  This September Sun from http://win-zimbabwe.blogspot.com/2013/02/win-newsletter-issue-no-64.html The discussion was led by writer Eresina Hwede Full participation in any discussion of a work of creative writing is guaranteed by the participants' reading and understanding of the text for criticism.  As this is possible where books are readily available for such purpo se, it then  calls for organizers of book clubs or discussion s  to device strategies that ensure the club members read the book before the day of the discussion. At a discussion of the novel 'This September Sun' held on February 12 at the Spanish Embassy Book Club it was apparent that a few writers had read the novel and the rest were familiar with the novel through blurb and reviews. However, the group discussion at the...

A Conversation with Bryony Rheam from www.panorama.co.zw 
After a heated discussion about Bryony Rheam’s  This September Sun  at the Spanish Embassy book club in Harare, Panorama Magazine decided to extend the conversation by talking to the author. This September Sun  has been published in Wales (Parthian Books) and Zimbabwe (amaBooks) to critical acclaim. It is currently chosen by the Zimbabwe Examination Council (ZIMSEC) as one of the “A” Level English Literature set texts. Bryony Rheam currently lives in Zambia with her family. Firstly, what is This September Sun all about? It is about a young girl growing up in Zimbabwe and her relationship with her grandmother.  The relationship changes over time, but Ellie only moves towards a fuller understanding of Evelyn after the latter’s death. 
What amount of research went into the writing of this novel? For instance, I am curious to know what new things you learnt in the process that you were not a...

This September Sun   was positively reviewed in the April 29, 2013 issue of  Publishers Weekly . The complete review is below and is available online via the link.   This September Sun Bryony Rheam.  $14.95 (420p) ISBN 978-1-906998-53-0 Rheam's debut novel follows Ellie, a shy, bookish girl growing up in Zimbabwe while navigating personal and political drama. The novel opens on Ellie's sixth birthday, a momentous day in her life as it marks two events: Zimbabwe 's independence from Britain , and Ellie's grandmother, Evelyn, leaving her grandfather to live on her own. While Ellie's grandfather feared that independence meant "The end was near" for White settlers like themselves in Zimbabwe, Evelyn embraces the changes as a headstrong woman unafraid of her own freedom. Through her adolescence, Ellie grows closer to her grandmother who encourages her to continue her education in England . After Evelyn dies, Ellie returns to Zimbabwe and...

Ebook of the Month: This September Sun by Bryony Rheam February’s  ebook of the month  is  This September Sun .  Published by Parthian in 2012, it is now available in ebook format from all good online stores –  a new chance to discover the book or read it again.   Originally published in Zimbabwe by amaBooks,  This September Sun  is a moving story about deception, family secrets and, above all, love; following the lives of Ellie, a shy girl growing up in post-Independence Zimbabwe, and her grandmother, whose secret affair with a married man is discovered in her old diaries. With this revelation, Ellie must reconsider her relationship with her grandmother and face up to some truths about herself.   In  This September Sun , Bryony Rheam addresses the political and social situation of White Zimbabwe from the 1940s to the present day, addressing current affairs relating to Mugabe’s rule and the history of what once was Rhodesia. Sh...