The Waiting Time

Julia has given up on love in her middle age but is searching for a vanished brother and a lost identity. In doing so, she collides with Kitty, a woman of a different age, life-style and aspirations. The proof of Julia's identity lies somewhere under Kitty's home. The literal digging up of the past changes life for both of them, though what they eventually find is very different to their expectations. Ahead are surprises, conflict, terror, disappointment, love - and unexpected happiness. Sometimes it is necessary for people to find the strength and courage to dig deep into themselves and their past. Those who do so will not always find what they expected and may even encounter disappointment and sadness. For the brave and the clear sighted, though, such fearless scrutiny can bring fulfilment, love and even happiness. During the Second World War, author Sara Banerji lived with her mother, brothers and sister in Oxfordshire while her father fought in the war. After the war she emigrated with her family to what was then Southern Rhodesia where they lived out in the African Bush in a single mud rondavel, with no electricity or running water. Sara met her husband in a coffee bar in Oxford when he was an undergraduate at Christ Church. He was a customer and she a waitress. They spent their child rearing years in the high hills of South India where he was a tea planter and she painted in oils, rode as a jockey on the flat, and wrote her first novel. They returned to England in 1973 with GBP5 each. Sara borrowed some money, bought ponies in auctions and taught riding. Later she started a gardening business in Sussex. The Waiting Time is the eighth of Sara's novels to be published. Her first book was long listed for Man Booker prize and her last published novel, Shining Hero won an Arts Council of England award. Sara and her husband now live in Oxford, where she teaches writing for Oxford University's Department for Further Education. She also holds regular exhibitions of her painting and waste material sculptures. She and her husband practice Transcendental Meditation and yogic flying every day. They have three daughters and five grandchildren.