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 Before immigrating
to Canada, Marie Warder was listed among South
Africa’s top seven “favourite novelists” by a South African
Book Club. She was certainly one of the most prolific. Mary Morrison
Webster, book critic of the prestigious Sunday Times, once recorded
among her recommendations, two books written “in time for Christmas—in
two different languages.” Mrs. Warder’s biography is
included in the Archives of the National Council of Women among
“Notable Women of Johannesburg.”
Locally, where she lives in British Columbia, she was
familiar for many years as a chaplain at the Delta Hospital while, to
most people in the rest of the world, she is known chiefly as the
Founder and President Emeritus of both the Canadian and South African
Hemochromatosis Societies, and the Founder and former President of
the International Association of Haemochromatosis Societies. Few know
that, before embarking on her two ground-breaking books on
Hemochromatosis—made available, together, in 2000, in the ‘new
edition’ of The Bronze Killer,
the ‘internationally
acclaimed best-seller’ (Delta Optimist), which contributed to her
being awarded a medal of honour and certificate of honour in Canada—she
was already the author of 13 very successful novels; three of
them used in South African schools. Not surprisingly, many of her
stories take place in and around newspaper offices for, according to
‘The Journalist’, she became, at the age of seventeen, the
youngest chief reporter in the world, having sold her first newspaper
article at the age of 11 and her first short story at 17. During her
career as a journalist she interviewed some the world’s most famous
people.
All in all, it seemed that she had a good career ahead of her in her
native South Africa, but when—just before
her 17th birthday—Frederick Abinger (Tom) Warder, a handsome, tanned
young man in an
Air Force uniform walked into the newspaper office one day, her life
changed radically. It was a clear case of ‘love at first sight’
and, after that meeting, her life would revolve about him. She played
the piano in Tom’s very popular dance band; he was wholeheartedly
supportive of her writing. And whenever there was a sword fight to be
fought in a novel, or a chess game to be played, it would be her
husband who worked out the moves for her.
When he was 42, he suddenly became ill and, as she tells in the book,
The Bronze Killer,
they had come
to the end of the good times. For more than 28 years after that,
except for a series of travel articles for a magazine she devoted her
literary efforts entirely to the writing of more than 200 articles on
the subject of Hemochromatosis, and to the production of patient
literature for individuals, hospitals and other medical facilities.
Her newsletters and brochures have gone out to more than 16
countries. Now she believes that she has done all in her power to
promote awareness of the world’s most common genetic disorder. Late
in 2003, motivated by the discovery of the tattered scraps of the
only carbon copy of the long-lost manuscript of a book, she decided
that she was ready to move on. Storm Water
and With
no remorse… were released simultaneously less than
a year
later.
When you know that you know that you
know! or The redemption of
Benjamin Ashton (April 2005) caused a sensation.
The response
has been phenomenal. One reader describes it as “The best novel I
have ever read!” Another reports that she read it “four times in
less than a month”, and wished that it were “twice as long!”
This about a book that contains 576 pages! The setting of that book
is a citrus farm called ‘Beauclaire’, situated in
the
district of Nelspruit in South Africa, and, responding to the clamour
for more about Benjamin (Ash) Ashton and his friends, ‘Dominic
Verwey: Samaritan of the Sahara’—although of a different
genre—continued the ‘Beauclaire saga’ in 2006.
About this book one reviewer wrote, “After the success of her South
African novel, Tarnished Idols,
Marie Warder has gone
to the other end of Africa for the setting of her new one, Samaritan
of the Sahara. Mrs. Warder’s romantic imagination
and
facile pen provide plenty of local colour, and she captures the
reader’s attention from start to finish. The very unusual theme
concerns the adventures of a doctor in the Sahara who, besides being
skilled with the scalpel, is also a dashing figure of the Robin Hood
type. Well worth reading and highly recommended.”
Now, about to be released on July 9, 2007 comes ‘The
Yardstick’ this author’s 21st
book, Volume
three of the gripping Beauclaire
Saga,
her seventh book to be written in Canada. Although so much of the
story is played out among the dunes of the Kalahari Desert of the
Northern Cape Province of South Africa, we are also taken back to
Nelspruit and Johannesburg, and recognize some of the well-loved
characters from When you know that you know that you
know,
as the Beauclaire saga continues. We find a disillusioned Benjamin
Ashton—about to become a grandfather, forced to consider
relocating the South African members of his family, which could well
bring to an end what has been for them a blessedly happy era in the
enthralling Beauclaire saga. At the same time, the
integrity
of Ben’s altruistic son, a physician, is severely tested as Jordan
is unwillingly drawn into the sordid affairs of Tristan Connaught,
the womanizing partner in their upscale practice near Johannesburg.
Unfortunately Tristan is none other than the son of Father Clifford
Connaught of Bethlehem in the Free State, who played such a important
role in the lives of both Ben Ashton and his brother, Jamie; and,
together with them, we are re-introduced to many of the other
well-loved characters from ‘When you know that you
know that
you know! or The redemption of Benjamin Ashton’.
Click
below to select one of Marie Warder's blogs:
http://thisisnotaperfectworld.blogspot.com
http://aboutthatheartfosouthafrica.blogspot.com
http://thefirstholocaustofthe20thcentury.blogspot.com
http://floatingpalacesshipsofhell.blogspot.com
http://welcometogetitoffyourchest.blogspot.com
http://thesebringmejoy.blogspot.com
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