Interview with Tony Park
1.You’re originally from Australia. What drew you to Southern Africa, and South Africa in particular?
My wife, Nicola! We travelled a good deal when we were younger, through Europe and Asia and one day, in 1995, she said “we’re going to Africa for a holiday”. I’d had no great desire to travel to Africa, but went along with the plans. I think that lack of preparedness and expectation mean that when we drove through the gates of the Kruger Park – the first place we visited on our first day in South Africa – the impact was even greater when I started seeing big game in the wild for the first time. I couldn’t believe that here I was, someone who had grown up in safe, predictable suburban Sydney was coming face to face with a bull elephant from the driver’s seat of a rented Corolla! It was fun, scary, exciting and addictive, all at the same time.
2. Your books link action-packed adventure with conservation. How did you get into this unique genre?
I had a failed attempt at writing a novel around the time of our first visit to Africa. That book was set in the outback – somewhere I’d never been. I knew I wanted to write a thriller, with some action and romance, but I realised I should have been writing about somewhere I knew something about (a great truism of writing is ‘write what you know’). On our third trip to Africa (we became hooked after that first trip), I decided to write a novel set in Africa. One can’t, unfortunately, spend much time in the African bush without soon becoming aware of conservation issues and the war on poaching. I was becoming more conservation-aware with every trip to Africa and it seemed to me an important, timely, and dramatic topic to write about. I often say that being a conservationist in Australia means writing letters to politicians, whereas in South Africa it can mean picking up a gun and putting your life on the line to protect endangered wildlife – it seemed to me that someone should be writing fiction about this important topic and the people literally risking their lives to protect the environment.
3. From what we’ve read, you like to allow your plot to develop naturally as you write. To what extent does the location of your novels influence the development of your plot?
Location for me is crucial. Because I didn’t grow up in any of the places I write about I don’t have residual knowledge of them to draw on. I find the best way for me to describe a place is be there and write it into my novel, ‘on location’. I make up the novel as I go (I never start with a plot) and I set the action wherever I happen to be on any given day. I find that travelling through Africa also helps me develop the story as I come up not only with new locations, but new ideas for twists and turns with nearly every new day. If I’m stuck for something to write all I have to do is turn on the radio and listen to the news or pick up a newspaper wherever I am in South Africa and I’ll get a dozen or more ideas for maybem or action to put in my novel!
4. One of your recent novels, Red Earth, is set in KwaZulu-Natal. What did you find interesting about this region that led to the novel being set here?
A key part of the story in Red Earth is the problem of vulture poaching, which was brought to my attention by a fantastic, dedicated guy called Andre Botha who works as a bird of prey specialist for the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Through Andre I learnt that, unfortunately, the killing of vultures for traditional medicine is a particularly serious problem in KwaZulu-Natal so it made sense to set the book there. On a more positive note I love KZN and was looking for an excuse to spend more time there. One of the things I love about travelling in South Africa is the diversity. When I stay in South Africa (for six months of the year) I live in Mpumalanga so travelling to KZN is almost like visiting a different country for me, because of the change in landscape, the coast, the people and the culture. It truly is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and I wanted to bring it to the attention of readers overseas (many of whom only get to see the Kruger Park and Cape Town if they visit South Africa).
5. What specific locations in KZN can readers look forward to seeing in Red Earth?
As with my other novels a lot of the action takes place in game parks (where you’re most likely to find me writing one of my books on any given day!). In Red Earth the action moves from Durban to Hluhluwe-iMfolozi and then to uMkhuze Game Reserve, one of my favourite parks in all of Africa. While researching the book I also visited Virginia Airport near Durban to meet with some people from a helicopter company who track stolen cars (the lead female character is a helicopter pilot), so we get a look at KZN’s fabulous coast line as well. There’s a romantic scene at my favourite hotel of all time, the iconic Oyster Box at Umhlanga Rocks and a minor military operation to capture some terrorists is mounted (pun intended) from the historical Natal Mounted Rifles base across the road from the Moses Mabhida stadium. The Natal Mounted Rifles have an amazing museum which is a must-see for any visitors to KZN who have an interest in military history.
6. Tell us about your latest book, Scent of Fear. Where is it set, and what issues does the book engage with?
Scent of Fear is about tracker dogs and their handlers engaged in the war on poaching. Dogs are proving to be a real game changer and in my novel the poachers start targeting the dog teams with booby trap bombs. To my shock I recently learned that a real life bomb, set by poachers, was found in the Kruger Park – a case of life imitating art even before my book was published. The book is mostly set around my ‘home’ in Mpumalanga around the Kruger Park. As a result of the success of dogs and handlers in the Kruger poaching has been moving to other parts of the country and I was pleased to learn that Canines 4 Africa, an NGO that helped me with my research, is no supplying dogs and handlers to the game reserves in KZN to help protect the province’s rhinos.
