Hi everyone! I’m Roxy Harper and it’s an honour to have been
asked to do a blog for Write for Harlequin to celebrate South
Asian Heritage Month (SAHM). I feel very lucky to have come from a heritage
that stretches across oceans—Portuguese Goan by descent, raised in Kenya and
now living in England. But it’s the South Asian part of my identity that I wanted
to write about here.
South Asia spans a wealth of countries made up of a myriad of
languages, religions, histories, and migrations, and my Goan roots form part of
that mosaic. Goa represents a cultural collision where East met West centuries
ago and as such, it has a deliciously layered history: once a Portuguese
colony, now a vibrant part of India, it carries a unique hybridity that’s both
South Asian and Western. Indeed, it was not uncommon for Catholic prayers to be
intermingled with the Konkani language, where spicy coconut Goan curries were
cooked in buildings that resembled the Mediterranean villas. An
“in-between”.
But that in-between space was (and still is) delightfully
multi-dimensional and fluid. Being part of that history was fundamental in
shaping me, and is the lens through which I see the world. To me, SAHM is not
only a celebration of South Asian heritage, but also of the less-told stories
which come from those colourful in-between spaces.
I feel incredibly grateful to be able to draw on this rich
heritage when it comes to writing my historical romances and crafting my heroes
and heroines. I’m drawn to characters who don’t quite fit the mould – people
with tangled loyalties and histories which echo across borders. I loved
writing The
Viking’s Royal Temptation for this reason, because I found
myself telling not just a love story, but a story about two worlds colliding.
Although miles away from the tropics of Goa, my Varangian Viking Erik travelled
to Constantinople and there, found his true love in a Greek Princess, Thea.
Erik and Thea’s story features some of the things I had to navigate in the
context of my cultural mix: the longing to belong; the tension between rules
and traditions on the one hand and following one’s own heart on the other hand.
These elements are what make my Viking warrior crave more than conquest, or my
English rake stand up to stiff traditions. It’s what makes my
heroines strong women – bold, complex, and unafraid to rewrite their destinies.
I’m really excited to write more stories featuring these
interracial elements – in particular, the period straddling the demise of the
East India Company and the birth of the British Raj. Some of the research I did
on this period led me to learn about the ayahs of London – nannies
who had been brought over from India to look after the children of their
British employers. But many of them were eventually left to fend for
themselves. Today, the building which housed these abandoned women sits on 26
King Edward’s Road in Hackney, East London, and has been honoured with a blue
plaque. It’s less-told stories like these that I’d like to be able to bring
into the spotlight as an author of South Asian heritage. Living in England
today, I think it’s great how (by Harlequin’s publishing of this blog, for
example!) we are making room for complex, layered stories from South Asian
voices—not just the ones rooted in the subcontinent, but also those shaped by
global movement and multicultural lives. I’m so grateful for the voices before
me that kept our stories alive, and for the chance to keep telling them, one
love story at a time.
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