During Margie Orford’s studies under JM Coetzee, the renowned author commented on one of her assignments that there were “glimmers of intelligence”. On 31 October 2013 the attendees at a Book Talk in the JS Gericke Library staff room had the pleasure of being exposed to more than just “glimmers” of her intelligence. Orford is not just intelligent, she is sharp-witted, open-minded and a lovely speaker who hardly needs any prompting to open up to the audience.

The conversation was led by Jonathan Amid, a PhD student in the Department of English, whose topic of research is crime fiction in South Africa. In response to some interesting questions from a very capable Jonathan, Margie shared the following with the audience: She started reading at a very young age and has fond memories of her grandfather telling her stories and even reciting Shakespeare to her. On her grandparents’ farm where the family spent their holidays, she discovered books and devoured anything that she could find on their endless bookshelves. Her first experience of crime fiction came through Tintin and Sherlock Holmes.

According to her father, Margie was “perfect till 12”, but then started to unravel a bit. This unravelling she illustrates by telling how she used to sneak out of her high school dorm at night, snitching the communion wine on her way out through the chapel. In her final year at UCT (1985) she took part in a protest march against the state of emergency and was detained and charged with treason. She wrote her final exams in Pollsmoor prison. Her experience at the time remains with her even today. (Margie’s essay about this experience can be found at http://www.sapen.co.za/news/sa-news/81-once-upon-a-life-margie-orford).

The characters in her books are usually based on real people, sometimes she combines characteristics of two or more people to create one character. Riedwaan Faisal, for example, was created in response to a very bad experience that she had with builders at her house. She realized that it was illegal to murder them, so she used their names and created a character that she liked so much that it took her mind off killing the builders.

In high school , Margie’s Afrikaans teacher told her and her classmates (she was in a private girls’ school) that they were lucky that their parents were rich, because “julle is dom en julle is lelik” (you are stupid and ugly). Comments like this and Coetzee’s “glimmers of intelligence” do not get her down, she responds with resilience and courage.

Margie Orford is the author of five fiction novels: Like Clockwork, Blood Rose, Daddy’s Girl, Gallows Hill and Water Music, all of which are available in the JS Gericke Library.

Naomi Visser

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Margie Orford in conversation with Jonathan Amid, JS Gericke Library.