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Love and Fury: A Memoir
Love and Fury traces a woman's fierce love and righteous rage, unravelling entanglements that are at once tender and traumatic. Renowned South African crime writer Margie Orford offers candid revelations, both political and personal, which have shaped her life and influenced her writing.
Surviving marriage, divorce, depression, personal loss and sexual assault, Orford recounts memories of what she has experienced as a woman, a wife, a mother – and particularly as a writer.
Love and Fury demonstrates the enduring, debilitating effects of hurt and harm, but at the same time it exemplifies the power of love, self-belief and self-reflection, ultimately offering a message of hope. This book is for every person who has experienced passion and wrath – and who looks beyond this to the light.
'This book kept me alive.'
Surviving marriage, divorce, depression, personal loss and sexual assault, Orford recounts memories of what she has experienced as a woman, a wife, a mother – and particularly as a writer.
Love and Fury demonstrates the enduring, debilitating effects of hurt and harm, but at the same time it exemplifies the power of love, self-belief and self-reflection, ultimately offering a message of hope. This book is for every person who has experienced passion and wrath – and who looks beyond this to the light.
'This book kept me alive.'
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
342 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 4, 2024
11 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Margie Orford
24 books51 followersMargie Orford is a journalist, film director and author of children’s fiction, non-fiction and school text books.
She was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa, studying at UCT where she wrote her final exams in prison while detained during the State of Emergency. After travelling widely, she did an honours degree at UCT, then worked in publishing in the newly-independent Namibia, where she became involved in training through the African Publishers Network.
In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York, worked on an archival retrieval project, Women Writing in Africa: The Southern Volume. She made her crime debut with Like Clockwork, which became a bestseller and was followed by a sequel, Blood Rose. Both crime novels will be published in Germany. A recent non-fiction project is Fabulously 40 and Beyond : Women coming into their own; her latest is Fifteen Men.
She was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa, studying at UCT where she wrote her final exams in prison while detained during the State of Emergency. After travelling widely, she did an honours degree at UCT, then worked in publishing in the newly-independent Namibia, where she became involved in training through the African Publishers Network.
In 1999 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and while in New York, worked on an archival retrieval project, Women Writing in Africa: The Southern Volume. She made her crime debut with Like Clockwork, which became a bestseller and was followed by a sequel, Blood Rose. Both crime novels will be published in Germany. A recent non-fiction project is Fabulously 40 and Beyond : Women coming into their own; her latest is Fifteen Men.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 5, 2024
This is hands down one of the best memoirs I've read in a very long time, maybe ever.
This book absolutely blew me away. Not only was the writing itself stunning, but Margie is an incredibly observant person (although one needs to be if you are a writer). She puts complex feelings and worries in words that one can understand and take to heart.
I think this book might be even more impactful to mothers. I now feel like it is my duty to have these conversations with the mothers I know and what their identities are. Not only that, but I wish I could have had the opportunity to read this book while I had my mother to ask her and tell her what I needed to.
This book also talks about the Namibian publishing industry and how Namibian women were at the forefront. Chapter 22, specifically, talks about Ellen Namhila and how her book eventually came about. The entire section talking about Namibian women writers had me sobbing.
The book can be incredibly anger inducing, as Orford often wrote about the violence women constantly experience at the hands of men, and the past few months in Namibia have been intense, with 18 women having been murdered since January (as of the time of me writing this review), so how can one not be angry at the world and at men? It's not only the violence that can anger one, but also the roles women are often thrust in. The mother, the wife, the obedient daughter, the victim. I am sobbing for all of us and our lost identities.
This book absolutely blew me away. Not only was the writing itself stunning, but Margie is an incredibly observant person (although one needs to be if you are a writer). She puts complex feelings and worries in words that one can understand and take to heart.
I think this book might be even more impactful to mothers. I now feel like it is my duty to have these conversations with the mothers I know and what their identities are. Not only that, but I wish I could have had the opportunity to read this book while I had my mother to ask her and tell her what I needed to.
This book also talks about the Namibian publishing industry and how Namibian women were at the forefront. Chapter 22, specifically, talks about Ellen Namhila and how her book eventually came about. The entire section talking about Namibian women writers had me sobbing.
The book can be incredibly anger inducing, as Orford often wrote about the violence women constantly experience at the hands of men, and the past few months in Namibia have been intense, with 18 women having been murdered since January (as of the time of me writing this review), so how can one not be angry at the world and at men? It's not only the violence that can anger one, but also the roles women are often thrust in. The mother, the wife, the obedient daughter, the victim. I am sobbing for all of us and our lost identities.
July 16, 2024
Feeling gutted after this memoir. Incredible easy reading prose, with so much to absorb. So brave and so intelligent. What a story, what a woman. Fury in a world of presumptuous and bumptious men. Phew
May 30, 2024
Excellent! The personal story of Margie Orford.
January 13, 2025
2025 is my memoir year, it would seem.
This was the first book of Margie Orford's I've read, and it was a gut-punch. Beautifully written, hard content.
This was the first book of Margie Orford's I've read, and it was a gut-punch. Beautifully written, hard content.
April 22, 2025
Loved it as her writing is magnificent.
Very interesting memoir and really enjoyed it
Very interesting memoir and really enjoyed it
October 26, 2025
growing up in South Africa at the same time, all I can say is" but for the grace of God go I"
well done in sharing
well done in sharing
February 26, 2025
An outstanding memoir. Margie Orford recounts some of the important strands of her life - writing, marriage and divorce, motherhood, her sister’s love, gender-based violence, feminism.
It flows like a rushing river, easily sweeping the reader with her. She is deft at telling her story using only salient details - no superfluity or overanalysis. It is disciplined, not self-indulgent writing. I found it utterly compelling, raw and honest. She is one angry, wounded, brave, defiant, tough, unwilling-to-be-vulnerable woman.
It flows like a rushing river, easily sweeping the reader with her. She is deft at telling her story using only salient details - no superfluity or overanalysis. It is disciplined, not self-indulgent writing. I found it utterly compelling, raw and honest. She is one angry, wounded, brave, defiant, tough, unwilling-to-be-vulnerable woman.
August 7, 2024
Insightful and powerful book about being a writer, a woman and a human being in a constantly changing world. This book gave a deeper understanding not only of myself, but also what many other women go through no matter at which stage in their lives.
June 13, 2024
Love and Fury
Margie Orford
Jonathan Ball Publishers
Review: Karen Watkins
Margie Orford is an internationally acclaimed writer known for her Clare Hart crime thrillers, which have been translated and sold worldwide.
Born in England to South African parents, she has lived in Windhoek, London, New York and Cape Town. She was recently in South Africa to promote Love and Fury and to attend book festivals in Simon’s Town and Franschhoek.
Her story begins in Windhoek growing up as the eldest of three children born to a doctor father and a mother who had been a nurse.
Weekends and holidays were spent on a farm in the country creating magnificent memories. Then, at age 14, Orford was sent to boarding school in Cape Town.
Studying English and film honours at UCT, she met Aidan, an architectural student. He had already served his compulsory two years in the military, but when he was called up for camps, he left for London. She joined him later planning to travel and to write. Instead they became parents, got married and fell into the inertia of marriage. Cooking, cleaning, mothering and restless homesickness for Cape Town meant no time to do what Orford really wanted – write.
When Nelson Mandela was released the family returned to a house in newly independent Namibia, near her parents.
Stuck in domesticity, her restlessness continued. A second daughter arrived and then a third. Driven by desire to write she found work with a new publishing house whose aim was for Namibian women to see themselves reflected in literature.
Winning a Fulbright scholarship, she moved to New York with an understanding that Aidan would be the breadwinner while she could start writing. Once established, the tables would turn and she would take over the financial role while he started his own practice.
This didn’t work to plan. Instead she was falling out of love with Aidan as her research into violence, mostly against women and children, was dragging her into a deep depression.
It was while writing a book on child pornography that she agonised about achieving acclaim and making money on the back of the exploitation of the fictional and yet representative victims who she wrote about.
And so her life continued – depression, dreams of suicide, therapy, frozen fury. Her girls left home and she left Aidan.
Be warned, this is a heavy read and possibly not for those suffering depression although some may not feel so bad and could learn from Orford’s honesty
Margie Orford
Jonathan Ball Publishers
Review: Karen Watkins
Margie Orford is an internationally acclaimed writer known for her Clare Hart crime thrillers, which have been translated and sold worldwide.
Born in England to South African parents, she has lived in Windhoek, London, New York and Cape Town. She was recently in South Africa to promote Love and Fury and to attend book festivals in Simon’s Town and Franschhoek.
Her story begins in Windhoek growing up as the eldest of three children born to a doctor father and a mother who had been a nurse.
Weekends and holidays were spent on a farm in the country creating magnificent memories. Then, at age 14, Orford was sent to boarding school in Cape Town.
Studying English and film honours at UCT, she met Aidan, an architectural student. He had already served his compulsory two years in the military, but when he was called up for camps, he left for London. She joined him later planning to travel and to write. Instead they became parents, got married and fell into the inertia of marriage. Cooking, cleaning, mothering and restless homesickness for Cape Town meant no time to do what Orford really wanted – write.
When Nelson Mandela was released the family returned to a house in newly independent Namibia, near her parents.
Stuck in domesticity, her restlessness continued. A second daughter arrived and then a third. Driven by desire to write she found work with a new publishing house whose aim was for Namibian women to see themselves reflected in literature.
Winning a Fulbright scholarship, she moved to New York with an understanding that Aidan would be the breadwinner while she could start writing. Once established, the tables would turn and she would take over the financial role while he started his own practice.
This didn’t work to plan. Instead she was falling out of love with Aidan as her research into violence, mostly against women and children, was dragging her into a deep depression.
It was while writing a book on child pornography that she agonised about achieving acclaim and making money on the back of the exploitation of the fictional and yet representative victims who she wrote about.
And so her life continued – depression, dreams of suicide, therapy, frozen fury. Her girls left home and she left Aidan.
Be warned, this is a heavy read and possibly not for those suffering depression although some may not feel so bad and could learn from Orford’s honesty
November 9, 2024
I have just finished this book. Any review I write at this moment, won't do it justice
For now I would like to acknowledge its powerful effect on me and thank Margie Orford for baring her soul and her creative core on these pages. I can only echo Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola's quote on the jacket: 'It is breathtaking and astonishing and beautiful'.
For now I would like to acknowledge its powerful effect on me and thank Margie Orford for baring her soul and her creative core on these pages. I can only echo Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola's quote on the jacket: 'It is breathtaking and astonishing and beautiful'.
October 16, 2024
"I did not know then that oblivousness to risk was not courage; it was a way of counting numbness."
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews