Born Out of Wedlock
I am a week away from publication of my latest novel, ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE. 3rd July 2025. It is always an exciting as well as a nerve-racking time.
A broad synopsis of what the novel is about: a British couple, Celia and Dominic, are living on a vineyard in the south of France. A vineyard that was inherited by Celia when her father died a decade earlier. Celia has decided to throw a huge summer party to celebrate the growing success she and her husband are making of their wine production. A few days before the big August bank holiday weekend when the party will be in full swing, Celia receives a forwarded letter from a man, David Hawksmith, who claims to be her son; the son she gave up at birth in 1977. David’s existence is the outcome of a traumatic incident from Celia’s past that she has never spoken about, not even to Dominic. Celia invites David to the party. Dominic graciously welcomes him (and David’s unexpected and rather curious travelling companion) even though he has his doubts about the veracity of David’s claims.
The book has elements of mystery but, ultimately, it is a story of Betrayal and Belonging set against a backdrop of all the glorious ingredients – food, sunshine, scents etc – of living along the Mediterranean coast in the south of France.
The Irish Times, in a recent Q and A, asked me whether the fact that I don’t have children of my own had been the seed, the inspiration, for the novel. Giving up a child born out of wedlock is a very big issue in Ireland. Only two weeks ago, a dig began in search of the bodies of babies whose mothers were obliged to give up their “illegitimate” offspring during the last century.
I have written a little about this subject before in one of my earlier History Girls blogs. Here you will read that Ireland’s right to abortion was not made legal until 2018.
Abortion was made legal in Britain on 27th October 1967, and came into effect on 27th April 1968. In theory, this means that Celia, the leading character in ONE SUMMER IN PROVENCE, could have legitimately terminated her pregnancy, but, for reasons revealed in the novel, she did not.
The choices for young pregnant women before the late sixties in Britain were…
