Marieke Hardy is my daughter. If you are reading this, it means her new book has been published.
As the writer of this book she has used the real names of people she writes about.
I argued long and loud with her that it is ‘better’, or rather ‘safer’, to fictionalise names and events in one’s writing to avoid hurting the real people—and indeed the writer!
Then I have to remember that her grandfather used a fake name of a real person and even changed what happened to them yet still got into a mess of trouble.
Her grandfather, my father, Prank Hartley (not his real name) wrote a novel entitled Powder without Chlorine (not its real name). In this novel he followed the life of a fictional character who was based on a real person, Ron Rebb (not his real name). In the book the writer had the fictional character do things that the ‘real’ character did not do.
Was it legitimate fiction or was it an attack on a real person?
The court found for the writer. It was a work of fiction. The argument lives on.
My father also wrote himself into another book as FJ Borky (not his real name), a struggling left-wing writer hiding from debt collectors. This was alarmingly close to the truth.
It must be clear to all but the most obtuse among you that real versus fictional names can be a nightmare not only for those written about but for the writer whose relationships can be put under real strain.
I admire the talent of my daughter and love her writing.
It is truthful, emotionally honest and revealing of the human condition. Yet could she not achieve the same ends without the real names?
But she is a wonderful writer for all that and I will read this book when it is delivered to me where I currently reside.
Alwyn Hadley (not my real name)
Somewhere on a beach near Bridgetown, Barbados
(I no longer appear in public.)