Love is the drug, or so the song says, and it couldn’t be more apt for Vasundra Tailor.
Born in India, Tailor – who grew-up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) against a backdrop of British colonial rule – confesses to a lifelong passion for novels and writing. But when it came to career, she took the sensible route.
Finally, at 68, after nearly 40 years in the NHS, a 37-year marriage, two grown-up daughters, and a creative writing course under her belt, Tailor’s debut fiction is in bookshops.
The Secret of Elephants landed the runner-up gong for the Mo Siewcharran Prize to help discover unpublished fiction writers from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
A tale of two sides of a family – one living in a magnificent mansion in India, the other penniless in its shadow – it features impoverished Nirmala, the devoted mother of a young, sick son and her loveless marriage. But when a mysterious letter arrives from Zimbabwe addressed to her long-dead father, it opens a door to a past she never knew existed and to a future she never thought possible.
Tailor – who qualified in pharmacy in Zimbabwe in 1977 and came to Strathclyde University a year later for her Masters, eventually settling in London – tells P.S: “The story is inspired by my own family. My father had a four-storey mansion built around the time I was born in 1954.
“My family come from Zimbabwe and my father was brought up there after my grandfather left India for a better life. But they used to make a lot of trips back and it was my father’s dream to have a holiday home in the town where his parents grew up.
“The mansion had tenants in the first three floors. The top floor was for our family holidays. But it was only about 2016, when I went for a visit, that I walked up the street where the building was and thought it would be interesting to follow the families who lived here. My family no longer owned it, but that was the inspiration. For me, it is a slice of history because so many people do leave their homes to make a better life in another country.
“I have always enjoyed writing. I was encouraged along the way by my teachers. About five years ago I put myself on an online course. The impetus to finish the novel came when I sent its first three chapters to the fiction competition and was runner-up. I couldn’t believe it. It made me all the more determined to finish, but I never really thought I would get an agent or publishing deal.”
Tailor, who wrote throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, says her grown-up daughters Kaushal and Priyanka were her first readers and are her greatest supporters. Her beloved husband Mahendra, 70, is also proud of her achievement.
Tailor, who works part-time in pharmacy, is now on her second novel. She explains: “The publishers offered me a two-book deal. I have finished the first drafts and am currently editing. I hope to submit it in December. It’s another family drama with a secret and features a mixed-race woman who knows all about her mother’s African side but nothing about her foundling father’s Indian roots, so she goes searching for her identity.”
She smiles: “I have included something about the difficulties and joys of being a pharmacist. I feel like this is my period of abundance.”
Clearly, the writer’s passion is now her addiction.
Vasundra Tailor- The Secret Of Elephants, Lake Union, £8.99
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