Christmas Day and Fridays

This novel is about a farm in South Africa and the British family who move from the Highlands of Scotland to the beautiful Boland area close to Cape Town. The main characters are Rupert and Dianna and their dog Boysie. He is a Jack Russel terrier with a special empathy with Rupert and it is he who narrates the story. It begins in a Scottish castle where Rupert and Dianna are running a very successful financial services company. Although the internet is used for some of their marketing, the business is predominantly a telephone operation. Rupert and Dianna are very successful , but after a holiday in South Africa they decide to buy a farm in the Western Cape and in due course the move is made. The story then follows the development of the farm and ten thousand olive trees are planted and an olive oil mill built. Whilst waiting for their own trees to mature they buy olives from other farms and press it and the oil produced wins a silver award. Many things happen on the farm including fires and floods and then in 2008 Rupert's investments in the UK are plundered and from being rich they now face a financial struggle. To add to their woes Dianna has a stroke and ten days later a second stroke and she is 70% paralysed. Rupert sells the farm and they move into a nearby town and a full time live in nurse looks after Dianna during the day and Rupert cares for her at night. To augment their income he starts a green energy company supplying solar devices. This is successful and both Rupert and Dianna have come to terms with their changed life style. Rupert becomes involved with a coloured woman, the dynamic and vivacious Almitra. He is torn with guilt but he still loves Dianna dearly. His relationship with Almitra is complicated by her drug addiction, and the relationship is very on and off, but she always lures him back. Dianna's death is not entirely unexpected, but he is racked with grief and his relationship with Almitra is very complicated as Dianna was his great love, but being emotionally vulnerable he accepts that he also loves Almitra.