City Views sat down with 26-year-old author Cayleigh Bright at the Book Lounge, where we discussed “home” and being a creative in the Cape Town CBD.
Cayleigh, a Central City resident and the Glamour online editor, has just had her first novel published. It’s a thriller called Close to Home that explores the dark side of student culture in the Mother City. Those who call the Cape Town CBD home may just recognise some of its settings.
CV: How does it feel to be published when you’re so young?
Cayleigh: It’s exciting, and flattering that someone liked my book enough to publish it. When you think about it, only a handful of people – the right people – have to like your book for the world to see it. It hasn’t been a huge change in life, but it feels like I’ve ticked off something I’ve always wanted to.
CV: Describe the process of writing and getting published?
Cayleigh: Writing the book was probably the easiest part. The getting published part – both finding someone who wanted to publish it and preparing it for publication – was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Someone asked me the other day: “Don’t you wish you had more time to write, because you love writing?” I said it’s not something I do for fun; it’s probably more of a therapy thing for me. I feel like I have to do it sometimes. And I like the feeling of having written something. I wrote this novel as something I’ve always felt like I had to do. I was doing a creative writing masters at UCT at the same time, which gave me structure. Before that, I was just scribbling bits of the story in notebooks. I assembled it with the help of my class and thesis supervisor, Ron Irwin [Ed: UCT lecturer and author of Flat Water Tuesday.]
CV: Tell us about your book launch earlier this year.
Cayleigh: My book launch was at a beauty studio in Shortmarket Street called Chanel Bettison Hair and Beauty Concept Store. Because the owner has such a nice space she also has a gallery and quite often hosts events at night. The launch was great. I didn’t realise what a good-looking group of friends I have and how nice they look when they dress up in collared shirts! I was in discussion with Ron, who I think knows the book better than I do sometimes. He asked me some gruelling questions.
CV: You’re originally from Durban. What brought you to Cape Town?
Cayleigh: I grew up in Durban till I was 18, then came to study a BA at UCT. As tends to happen to everyone who comes to Cape Town, I loved it and stayed. I ended up working at Conde Nast magazine publishers; when they started an online department, they asked if I’d like to be involved. That was my first job and I’m still there five years later. I love Durban and miss it, but there’s a lot more to do in Cape Town if you are a creative or a writer. I live close to The Company’s Garden, which is very idyllic, and work nearby at the top of Loop Street. It’s perfect for me because I can’t drive. I’ve managed to get a master’s degree and publish a book, but haven’t learnt to drive! My mother keeps laughing at me about that.
CV: How does the CBD feature in Close to Home?
Cayleigh: The girls in the book are studying at university. Much like me, they’ve come to a new city and they want to experience it – a lot of those scenes happen in the CBD. What’s quite important is that the book does feel like an outsider’s view of Cape Town. Some of the characters feel alienated. Others are right at home. The city is described in the way that someone who has lived here all their life probably wouldn’t. They probably wouldn’t notice the small things like I do when I go back to Durban. The city features almost like a character in the story, more than in explicit descriptions of places. I was quite careful not to use actual venue names. I think people who live in the city will get quite a good feeling of what I’m describing and they’ll know where I’m talking about though. You always get people, I’m told by my publisher, asking who each of the characters are based on. But I’ve also had a lot of people asking: “Does that scene take place at whatever bar or club?”
This article first appeared in the December 2014 / January 2015 issue of City Views. Read it online.
Words and photo: Brent Smith