How my family's wartime guests became the heart of my new romantic suspense novel
When History Becomes Fiction
In my upcoming novel Diamond Mountain (releasing September 30), I've woven together the authentic threads of my parents' lives to create a story that's as compelling as it is true to history. While my father's investigations into diretlo (medicine murder) and illegal diamond buying in 1960s Lesotho provide the mystery's backbone, the personal journey of my hero, Stuart Price, springs from a remarkable chapter of my family's wartime story.
Three Children Who Changed Everything
My mother, growing up in Pretoria, South Africa, was just eleven when Jean, Peter, and Michael arrived at the Cape Town docks in 1940. My grandparents—he a gentle lawyer, she a privileged woman of her times—had intended to take in one British child evacuee. Instead, they came home with three siblings from London's Seven Dials, as they couldn't bear to separate the children.
But the newcomers were clearly used to pitched, physical battles and my mother's usually harmonious family home erupted into chaos. The evacuees' battles were so disruptive that the eldest, twelve-year-old Jean, begged to be sent to boarding school—at my grandparents' expense. Meanwhile, my mother attended the local government school while her brother Tony was educated at Hilton, one of South Africa's premier boys' schools.
(On a side note, Jean grew up to become a keen equestrian jumper and a friend to Princess Anne.)
The Forgotten Evacuation: Britain's Children in South Africa
Diamond Mountain draws on this lesser-known chapter of WWII history. While most people know about the London Blitz evacuations to the British countryside, few realize that thousands of British children were sent to the Dominions—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa—to escape anticipated bombing.
Winston Churchill's government formalized this through the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) in June 1940. The initiative aimed to give working-class children the same safety opportunities that wealthy families were already purchasing privately.
Voyages of Hope and Tragedy
Ships like the SS City of Paris and SS City of Simla carried these young passengers across dangerous waters patrolled by German U-boats. The program's darkest moment came on September 17, 1940, when the SS City of Benares was torpedoed en route to Canada, killing 77 of 90 child evacuees aboard.
Yet remarkably, all 353 children sent to South Africa under the CORB scheme arrived safely—including the three who would profoundly impact my family and, decades later, inspire the character at the heart of my novel.
From Separation to Story
These evacuees remained with their South African families for up to six years, becoming teenagers shaped by African landscapes and experiences far from their London origins. When they finally returned to Britain in 1945-46, they left behind the families who had raised them and returned to a war-scarred homeland and relatives they barely remembered.
This profound experience of displacement, adaptation, and divided loyalties forms the emotional core of Stuart Price's character in Diamond Mountain. Like my family's evacuees, Stuart carries the weight of belonging to two worlds: in his case, working for his conman father in London's gritty East End—and the genteel privilege of middle class Pretoria.
Where History Meets Romance
Diamond Mountain releases September 30th as the second novel in my Wings Over Africa series. Set against the backdrop of 1960s Lesotho, the African mountain kingdom that was on the cusp of democracy — it combines authentic historical events with passionate romance and deadly intrigue. Stuart's story—rooted in real evacuee experiences—proves that sometimes the most compelling fiction comes from the extraordinary truths hidden in family history.
Discover how wartime separation shapes a man's destiny in Diamond Mountain, available September 30th. Pre-order now and step into a world where love, loyalty, and survival collide in the heart of Africa.