» Sandra Freeman
Magic property
Lesbians, practising witches and estate agents are not unusual in Brighton. But what happens when the three all come together? Author and playwright Sandra Freeman has written a novel about two women who set up an estate agency with a little magic in their lives. The Wow Factor follows the pair as they get further entailed in the worlds of real estate and witchcraft.
Freeman lives in France but spent 30 years living in Brighton where she taught French and Theatre Studies at the University of Sussex and wrote, acted in and directed 20 plays. She is the author of four novels and of Putting Your Daughters on the Stage: British Lesbian Theatre from the 1960s to the Present.
She visits Brighton regularly and was inspired to write The Wow Factor after reading a local news story last year about a couple of practising Wiccans ‘coming out’ with their beliefs. She dropped the idea for a novel she was already working on in favour of writing about witchcraft.
She said: “The idea of ‘coming out’ really appealed to me. I thought, that is so typical Brighton because there has always been this undercurrent of witchcraft going on in Brighton and around the Downs.” Arming herself with a copy of The Wicca Handbook bought from a local magic bookshop, Freeman set to work finding out about magic.
She sought advice on the real estate industry from her friend Jonathan MacFarlane. The result is a light-hearted and intriguing tale of mystique and spell-casting, with shades of Tales of the City.
The book’s protagonist is Danielle Divito, who appeared in Freeman’s previous novel Juniper Street, set in France. Danielle spends the novel trying to work out what makes the wow factor, whether in a property or in a romantic interest. She narrates: “Going to the pub with Amelia was an interesting experience. Jaws dropped, beer mugs suspended halfway to mouths…. ‘She’s the wow factor,’ I thought.”
Two characters are based on real Brightonians and friends of Freeman – the late manager of a theatre company and his partner – although Freeman has imagined their dabblings in magic. The rest she made up.
While not a Wiccan, Freeman believes in the supernatural and claims to have ‘psychic feelings’ when she goes into a house, which make her very interested in property. She said: “I have always thought in another life I might have been an estate agent. I love looking at houses. I love thinking about matching houses to people.”
Freeman is now working on a novel about a 75-year-old woman living in France who decides to set up home in the mountains. The writer said: “It is about changing your life as you get older and tying to do something that is completely different, thinking, ‘what the hell.’”
The Wow Factor will be launched at Borders bookshop in Churchill Square, Brighton on Thursday 23 October at 7.30pm.
