Barbara Mutch Book order

Set in 1930's, The Fire Portrait starts with an epic relocation from England to a hamlet in South Africa and offers insights in art and the rural community.

Simon's Town is a vibrant and diverse community in the Union of South Africa. Louise Ahrendts dreams of being a nurse instead of entering domestic service as expected. With the Second World War arrives Lieutenant David Horrocks. Despite their differences and a changing society around them, Louise and David are determined to be together.

Duty and love collide on the arid plains of central South Africa. Cathleen Harrington leaves her home in Ireland in 1919 to travel to South Africa and marry the fiance she has not seen for five years. Isolated and estranged in a harsh landscape, she finds solace in her diary and the friendship of her housemaid's daughter, Ada."