Thank you to all of you who have contacted me, asking when Vaughn de Vries will return. Simply, the answer is: I hope soon. 2019 was a difficult year for me. I endured poor health for the first half of the year, family illness and bereavement in the second half. I also lost one of my very best friends to cancer. As a result, I found inspiration, and the opportunity to seal myself off from the real world and immerse myself in the fictional ones I try to create, almost impossible to find. So, I put my head down and got on with non-fiction work. I’m working on De Vries 5 now, but even then, the wait for his return may be some time. My publishers seemed to lose interest in my work, finding books set in South Africa a tough sell so, although “Apostle Lodge” sold well in South Africa, it fared poorly in the UK. So, it may be that De Vries’ next outing may emanate from South Africa rather than the UK. We’ll have to see. Two television production companies have been working on bringing De Vries to the screen. It is a lengthy process but, doubtless, if they succeed, all of a sudden, publishers will suddenly think it’s worth investing in ‘South African Noir’ once more. In 2018, I was asked to write a crime novel set in the UK. The following year I did this and, at the behest of my high-powered agent, I worked with her excellent editor in honing the book. Now, we’ll see who would like to bring it to market. As well as working on the next De Vries novel, I am deeply committed to another novel which is personal to me and, in small ways, semi-autobiographical. I hope that I’ll have news of this too in the future. Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me with your enthusiasm for what is currently being called the “De Vries Quartet”. Please keep writing to me and I hope to entertain you with further work shortly. Paul Mendelson London
