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 Hair
floating like a cloud of liquorice candyfloss, Marsha
Hunt crosses the busy Folkestone to Dover road and walks
into an oasis of colour and intoxicating perfume. When
she first moved from London to her seaside apartment
in Folkestone six years ago, Marsha noticed the florist
while driving past and was tempted inside by the colourful
display and the charming sign, Reginald Usher & Daughters.
Melanie Chalk is one the
daughters. Her parents bought what was originally a
fruit shop that did wreaths after her father Reginald
came out of the air force in 1945. Her mother died 20
years ago and, now that her father has retired and her
sister is no longer involved, Melanie is the sole proprietor.
"We kept the name for sentimental reasons."
The tiny shop is stacked
with lilies, carnations, roses, towering delphiniums
and more, with boxes of bedding plants on the pavement
outside. "I am addicted to flowers," says Marsha. "It
began when I was at university in Berkely, California.
I picked flowers from other people's gardens. Now I
have a huge garden of my own in France at my house,
60 miles north of Paris, and am a serious gardener."
She doesn't have a favourite flower but says: "I do
love ranunculuses and wild flowers. I like decorative
flowers, but I don't like arranging them."
Now 46, Marsha is even
more stunning than when she first attracted public attention
in the 60s as a singer and dancer in 'Hair'. She later
became romantically involved with Mick Jagger and for
a time was better known as the woman who had his love
child. Their daughter Karis was born in 1970, but it
took nine years and various court cases before Mick
admitted paternity. Today the split has long been healed
and last month Marsha, Mick and Jerry Hall all watched
proudly as Karis graduated from Yale University, where
she studied British History.
Marsha first came to London
intending to take three months off from university,
but she wanted to be a singer and succeeded here. "I
just never went home," she says. Now she divides her
time between Folkestone and France, where she writes.
"Books don't come easy,
but I now think of myself as a writer who acts. Sometimes
I write for 12 hours a day, seven days a week. I live
in an isolated spot and don't know anybody there. Even
when I'm mowing the lawn, I am writing."
It began with her autobiography,
'Real Life', in 1986, which, she says, she found difficult
to write. After that she wanted to write a non-fiction
book about mothering, "but it was suggested I write
a novel. I didn't think I could. I am shocked that stories
come to me."
Her first novel, 'Joy',
did well and her second, 'Free', is published by Hamish
Hamilton on 13 July. She is already well into her third.
"'Free' took two years. I didn't think I could sustain
myself for that long. I have never wanted an acting
contract for more than six months. But I am a workaholic
and, as a single parent with no family here, I got into
the rhythm of doing something all the time. Karis went
to boarding school at 13, so the weaning process was
gradual."
Marsha was married briefly,
to a musician, when she was 21, but they have never
divorced and remain good friends. She will not say if
there is anyone special in her life now. "My work doesn't
allow me to be social. What is odd is I slip back and
forth between careers but I don't belong to any of them.
"I have a really nice
life and I don't mind getting older. I don't want to
apologise for being 46. I am a happy person and have
a happy, healthy daughter. I think I have done all the
right things. I needed to be in rock and roll rather
than stay at university. And now I think I am lucky
to be able to move between professions. I feel quite
blessed."
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