There Are Ants In My Sugar

There are Ants in My Sugar is the warm hearted, engaging, and humorous account of Annica Foxcroft's exile to a pondokkie in the country when unexpected financial hardship overtook her family during the 1960s. Annica is a sassy young woman to whom the city chic of Johannesburg, and the dire warnings of her decorator friend Harry, still cling like French perfume as she is dumped unceremoniously in the dark, on a pile of blackjacks. She has to adapt and make a home for her baby daughter and aging husband amidst boreholes, long drops and Aga stoves. She comes to terms with her neighbours, Joshua, a practising Sangoma, and Ben, a Jewish pig farmer; is educated in the ways of the Practical by her indomitable maid May; and comes of age through her determined efforts to create things of beauty amidst the khakibos - a lawn and poetry. She even restores the family fortune by engaging in a lucrative and uniquely South African venture. Part 60s chick lit and part Madam and Eve, There are Ants in My Sugar will have you chuckling all the way to its joyous conclusion; even in 1960s South Africa, there was some justice for all.

Sophisticated city girl Annica is married to Garth, a wealthy, self-employed inventor much older than herself. When one of his many projects also fails, Annica, together with Garth and baby daughter, have to relocate ‘temporarily’ to a plot in rural Transvaal, near Johannesburg. Far from being the ‘great place in the country’ promised to her by Garth, and against the advice of decorator friend Harry, Annica finds herself having to cope with a run-down hovel with no water supply, no electricity and no phone. She is introduced to a black domestic worker, May, to help her, except May speaks no English – and Annica speaks no Afrikaans. They are terrorised by a mysterious figure who skulks around at night, and are plagued by thick forest of tenacious, neck-high weeds that have overgrown the whole yard. Then she has to cope with an invasion of bees and an army of ants that follow the honey trail and end up moving into the sugar bowl. By now Annica and May have become good friends – and Annica has learned to speak some sort of Afrikaans. But a new crisis quickly develops around the house when Annica stumbles on a marijuana plantation and a possible plot to frame them all – and it is 1960s apartheid South Africa. When she runs into a Jewish pig farmer an opportunity to restore the family fortunes suddenly appears. But the cops have gotten wind of the plantation and are on their way and quick-thinking Annica has to do some fast talking. A mysterious fire at the neighbours suddenly connects all the dots and it seems that the family has survived winter, but can the good fortune last? Will Garth find out how he’s been unwittingly involved in transporting banned substances? Could it all end well when Annica invites the Muslim trader, the Jewish pig farmer, her conservative aunt, her gay friend and May’s family for a special celebration?

Annica Foxcroft was born in Durban. She is the author of the bestselling trilogy There Are Ants in My Sugar, More Ants and Ants in the Big Onion. Co-founder of a language and communication skills development company, Languageworks in Johannesburg, she has been the marketing director for over 30 years.