Barbara Else is beginning to have second thoughts about the publication of her memoir. The bestselling New Zealand novelist, literary editor and playwright has produced a raw, funny and sometimes heartbreaking account of her life. An intensely private person, this public baring of her soul has been “really upsetting” at times.
Laughing at the Dark examines, among many other things, her failed marriage to a leading renal physician, her love affair with a fellow writer, her beloved older sister’s decline and Barbara’s own fight for her life as she battled cancer.
She tells me she’s not looking forward to the inevitable hoopla surrounding publication. It’s painful each time she has to tell the stories. “It’s an alarming thing to do, writing a memoir.”
In her role as a literary editor, she’d seen many memoirs come across her desk, but she insists, “I never thought I’d do one. I didn’t think I had anything to say.” Turns out she was wrong.
She started because she wanted to discover whether there were any signs in her past pointing to the person
