

Internationally best-selling author Lisa Jewell is a Londoner through and through, yet her Anglo-Indian mother had a rather traumatic upbringing in India and Pakistan. Lisa’s travelled far and wide – tracing her family roots in India, having rare-for-the-time childhood holidays in Barbados and was even inspired to centre one novel about an unknown woman sneaking into a posh beach resort in the south of France. But she’s in her holiday element when spending a couple of weeks chilling in a nice hotel in Lanzarote.
On this episode we cover:
Her mother being abandoned in India as a child
Her grandmother being sent to England solo with baby twins
Her four year old mother being sent to boarding school
Being told she had a different mother now
Finally taking the boat to England age 10
The long-lost brother who appeared in the garden
Casual acts of cruelty against children in the Victorian era
The difficult trip to India that should have been magical
Struggling with countries with extreme wealth divides
Finding India a huge culture shock
Turning into sulky teenagers when on holiday with parents
Not being that impressed by the Taj Mahal
Finding Cape Town a similar experience in terms of struggling with the poverty
Preferring a week in a resort in Lanzarote
Good food, female emancipation and nice weather
LFN ‘going travelling’ as ending up as far as Amsterdam
People’s expectations going to be lower now since Covid
The joys of writing in a café
But feeling guilty in post Covid cafes
Not doing any research for her books
Writing a book a year
Her first book being written for a bet when working as a secretary
The mysterious woman in the South of France who inspired a whole book
LFN’s parents probably looking quite striking as a mixed race family in the South of France in the 70s and 80s
No-one inheriting her mother’s Anglo-Indian colouring
Growing up sandwiched between the colourful, loud Indian side and her white middle class side
Barbados being an (unexpected for 1970s and 80s) huge part of their childhoods
Barbados Christmas parties (and Boney M) being etched in her mind forever