Author: whatcathyreadnext

Blog Tour/Q&A: The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins

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The Tide Between Us Blog Tour Banner

I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Tide Between Us by Olive Collins and to welcome Olive to What Cathy Read Next.   Below you can find a fascinating interview in which Olive talks about the inspiration for The Tide Between Us, the historical background to the events in the book and her view that we must examine the past in order to fully understand the present.

Be sure to check out the other bloggers taking part in the tour.

I’d like to thank Olive for providing me with a review copy of The Tide Between Us. I can’t wait for it to reach the top of my review pile. If you’re less patient than me, follow the purchase links below.

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The Tide Between UsAbout the Book

1821: After the landlord of Lugdale Estate in Kerry is assassinated, young Art O’Neill’s innocent father is hanged and Art is deported to the cane fields of Jamaica as an indentured servant. He gradually acclimatises to the exotic country and unfamiliar customs of the African slaves and achieves a kind of contentment. Then the new heirs to the plantation arrive. His new owner is Colonel Stratford-Rice from Lugdale Estate, the man who hanged his father. Art must overcome his hatred to survive the harsh life of a slave and live to see the eventual emancipation of his coloured children. Eventually he is promised seven gold coins when he finishes his service.

One hundred years later in Ireland, a skeleton is discovered beneath a fallen tree on the grounds of Lugdale Estate. By its side is a gold coin minted in 1870. Yseult, the owner of the estate, watches as events unfold, fearful of the long-buried truths that may emerge about her family’s past and its links to the slave trade. As the body gives up its secrets, Yseult realises she too can no longer hide.

Format: eBook, Paperback (400 pp.) Publisher: Poolbeg Press
Published: 7th September 2017           Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Barnes & Noble
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

 

Find The Tide Between Us on Goodreads

Interview with Olive Collins, author of The Tide Between Us

Without giving too much away, can you tell me a bit about The Tide Between Us?

My novel is based between Jamaica and Ireland (1821 – 1991). It follows the story of Art O’Neill, an Irish boy deported to Jamaica at 10 years of age. He takes us through the decades of his life and the coarseness of Jamaica, a country that eventually allows him to progress from servant to overseer, to landowner. We see him become a father and watch as slave emancipation unfolds liberating his coloured children. His greatest battle is fought quietly as he struggles with his abhorrence at his Anglo-Jamaica oppressors, a mutual loathing that passes from father to son. Eventually Art is promised seven gold coins when he finishes his service, although he doubts the plantation owner will part with the coins. Part 1 ends in 1891 with Art going to the Big House to claim his gratuity.

Part 2 is based in Ireland (1921 – 1991). It opens with the discovery of a skeleton beneath a tree on the grounds of Lugdale Estate with a gold coin minted in 1870. Yseult, the owner of Ludgale Estate, watches events unfold fearful of the rumours that abound about her father’s beginnings in Jamaica, a county with 25% of the population claiming Irish descent.

What was the inspiration for the book?

In the 1990’s I met a man at a St. Patrick’s Day party in Israel. He was from Jamaica yet identified his heritage as Irish. He told me that vast numbers of Jamaicans were of Irish descent. At the time I didn’t believe him and only when Google became available did I research his story. I found so many accounts of exiled Irish to Jamaica, I was enthralled. One particular story about 2,000 exiled children tugged at me. My inspiration is those who survived and passed their stories onto the following generations; those who survived adversity to find their own sense of freedom.

How did you approach the research for the book? Do you enjoy the process of research?

I knew very little about the Caribbean so I had to start from scratch. Unlike a lot of colonies, there was little that survived on Jamaica. I used academic papers, memoirs, history books and some diaries from the southern American states to establish the role of an overseer and the attitudes of the time towards slavery. There was one valuable diary from Thomas Thistlewood, an English overseer and planter in Jamaica.

Only when my main character, Art O’Neill, began his journey did I begin to enjoy the research. Reading about the unnecessary cruelty and what the slaves and indentured servants endured was difficult yet it helped me establish how the slaves and servants were viewed. I became very involved in the characters. Writing about slave emancipation was wonderful; the great strides the ex-slaves made to ensure their days of whippings were finally over.

The Tide Between Us tells the story of a young Irish man deported to Jamaica as an indentured servant. Do you feel this is an aspect of Irish history that has been overlooked?

Yes, I think it’s overlooked. Most people who’ve read my novel never knew about the exiled Irish or how the masses of Irish left as indentured servants during the 18th century and until the mid-19th century. When I looked at the map of Jamaica and saw the amount of Irish place-names I was even more surprised that so many are not aware of our exiled history.

What was the most surprising fact you uncovered during your research?

The amount of Irish who emigrated to Jamaica. Initially I thought the number was much smaller. We don’t have accurate numbers; suffice to say, 25% of Jamaican’s claim Irish ancestry. I was equally surprised to see that some Irish owned slaves and could be as cruel as any other slave-owner.

Your previous novel, The Memory of Music, is partly set in Ireland during the Easter Rising of 1916. What is it you enjoy about writing historical fiction?

I write historical fiction because I’m curious about the unknown. The present is familiar to me whereas the atmosphere of times long gone is mysterious. Sometimes I simply want to explore how people survived. The novels and location interest me; if nothing else, it sates my curiosity. When I read certain histories, so much is explained about a nation’s outlook. To understand the present, we need to examine the past.

Both The Memory of Music and The Tide Between Us have dual time narratives. What is it that attracts you to this structure for your novels?

It’s the continuation that interests me. I like to explore how the following generation is impacted by the previous generation. Naturally as time passes we become more civilised and tolerant, yet each of us inhabit our own smaller histories, the little nuggets we pass onto the following generations. I’m interested in how families and we as individuals evolve and how much of the deep, dark past we pull into the present and pass on again and again.

Do you have a special place to write or any writing rituals?

I don’t have a special place, although I like to write at night. Most of the time I sit by a window with a lamp and the flickering lights from houses and cars in the distance. Writing at night removes layers and brings me closer to those I want to reach. There is a sense that it’s only me and them (my beloved characters) and the time they inhabit.

Which other writers do you admire?

I like Elizabeth Strout for her solid characters, Isabelle Allende for her sweeping sagas, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her prose bubbling on each page.

What are you working on next?

I’m researching the American Wild West and the pioneers who ventured into the prairies. A few years ago I visited Oregon. At one point I went for a drive into the desert and saw the remains of the Oregon Trail. Although it had been 130 years since the last pioneers used the same trail, the route they travelled was still evident in the desert. I remember looking across the arid landscape and further to the distant mountains. I’ve often thought of the trail I saw and thought about the men and women who packed up everything and chased a dream.

Thank you, Olive, for the fascinating answers. I’m sure we all hope those nights spent connecting with the characters of your next book will prove fruitful.

Olive CollinsAbout the Author

Olive Collins grew up in Thurles, Tipperary, and now lives in Kildare. For the last fifteen years, she has worked in advertising in print media and radio. She has always loved the diversity of books and people. She has travelled extensively and still enjoys exploring other cultures and countries. Her inspiration is the ordinary everyday people who feed her little snippets of their lives. It’s the unsaid and gaps in conversation that she finds most valuable.

Connect with Olive

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WWW Wednesdays – 6th December ‘17

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WWWWednesdays

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too? Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

Currently reading

The Good EarthThe Good Earth (House of Earth #1) by Pearl S. Buck (hardcover)

This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic tells the poignant tale of a Chinese farmer and his family in old agrarian China. The humble Wang Lung glories in the soil he works, nurturing the land as it nurtures him and his family. Nearby, the nobles of the House of Hwang consider themselves above the land and its workers; but they will soon meet their own downfall. Hard times come upon Wang Lung and his family when flood and drought force them to seek work in the city. The working people riot, breaking into the homes of the rich and forcing them to flee. When Wang Lung shows mercy to one noble and is rewarded, he begins to rise in the world, even as the House of Hwang falls.

The Snow ChildThe Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (ebook)

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart – he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone – but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.  This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

Corpus_SignedCorpus (Tom Wilde #1) by Rory Clements (hardcover)

It’s 1936. Europe is in turmoil. The Nazis have marched into the Rhineland. In Russia, Stalin has unleashed his Great Terror. Spain has erupted in civil war. In Berlin, a young Englishwoman evades the Gestapo to deliver vital papers to a Jewish scientist. Within weeks, she is found dead in her Cambridge bedroom, a silver syringe clutched in her fingers. In a London club, three senior members of the British establishment light the touch paper on a conspiracy that will threaten the very heart of government. Even the ancient colleges of Cambridge are not immune to political division. Dons and students must choose a side: right or left, where do you stand?

When a renowned member of the county set and his wife are found horribly murdered, a maverick history professor finds himself dragged into a world of espionage which, until now, he has only read about in books. But the deeper Thomas Wilde delves, the more he wonders whether the murders are linked to the death of the girl with the silver syringe – and, just as worryingly, to the scandal surrounding King Edward VIII and his mistress Wallis Simpson…

Recently finished (click on title for review)

FortunesWheelFortune’s Wheel by Carolyn Hughes (paperback, giveaway prize)

June 1349. In a Hampshire village, the worst plague in England’s history has wiped out half its population, including Alice atte Wode’s husband and eldest son. The plague arrived only days after Alice’s daughter, Agnes, mysteriously disappeared, and it prevented the search for her. Now the plague is over, the village is trying to return to normal life, but it’s hard, with so much to do and so few left to do it. Conflict is growing between the manor and its tenants, as the workers realise their very scarceness means they’re more valuable than before: they can demand higher wages, take on spare land, and have a better life. This is the chance they’ve all been waiting for. Although she understands their demands, Alice is disheartened that the search for Agnes is once more put on hold. When one of the rebels is killed, and then the lord’s son is found murdered, it seems the two deaths may be connected, both to each other and to Agnes’s disappearance. (Review to follow 7th December)

DeathAtGlacierLakeDeath at Glacier Lake by Pam Stucky (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

For two decades, the lush, isolated forests of the North Cascades have hidden a secret. Now, twenty years later, a mysterious contest has brought Mindy Harris back to the area she thought she’d left behind forever. A seemingly innocent creative design firm shows up for a company retreat, but all goes awry when one of their own turns up dead. Was it an accident? Murder? And how does the unsolved mystery from twenty years ago play into it all?

KeepMeSafeKeep Me Safe (Seal Island #1) by Daniela Sacerdoti (ebook, NetGalley)

When Anna’s partner walks away from their relationship, she is shattered. But it is her little girl Ava who takes it hardest of all, falling silent for three days. When she does finally speak, Ava talks about a new place – a small island of beauty, salt and sea in the Western Scottish Isles. In search of a new start, Anna and Ava embark on a journey to the remote and gorgeous Island of Seal. Falling in love with the locals and the landscape, could Seal offer the second chance they both need? (Review to follow 9th December)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

TheLastTrain1The Last Train by Michael Pronko (ebook, review copy courtesy of the author)

Detective Hiroshi Shimizu investigates white collar crime in Tokyo. He’s lost his girlfriend and still dreams of his time studying in America, but with a stable job, his own office and a half-empty apartment, he’s settled in. His mentor Takamatsu calls him out to the grisly murder of an American businessman. When Takamatsu disappears, Hiroshi teams up with ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi. They scour Tokyo’s sacred temples, corporate offices and industrial wastelands to find Takamatsu, and a woman driven to murder who seems to have it all.  After years in America lost in neat, clean spreadsheets, Hiroshi confronts the stark realities of the biggest city in the world. Inside information can travel in a flash from the top investment firms to the bottom of the working world. Street-level punks and teenage hostesses sell their souls for a small cut of highly lucrative land deals. Their target, an ex-hostess, wants to extract her final revenge – which might be him.

The Twelve-Mile StraightThe Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson (eARC, NetGalley)

Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: in a house full of secrets, two babies-one light-skinned, the other dark-are born to Elma Jesup, a white sharecropper’s daughter. Accused of her rape, field hand Genus Jackson is lynched and dragged behind a truck down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to the nearby town. In the aftermath, the farm’s inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured.

Despite the prying eyes and curious whispers of the townspeople, Elma begins to raise her babies as best as she can, under the roof of her mercurial father, Juke, and with the help of Nan, the young black housekeeper who is as close to Elma as a sister. But soon it becomes clear that the ties that bind all of them together are more intricate than any could have ever imagined. As startling revelations mount, a web of lies begins to collapse around the family, destabilizing their precarious world and forcing all to reckon with the painful truth.