Tell us about your new novel, City Girls Forever
My first novel, City Girl, was published in 1990. I’ve been asked many times about what my gals are up to now. City Girls Forever brings Devlin, Caroline and Maggie into their midlife prime dealing with complex family dramas, elder abuse, addictive behaviour, historical sexual abuse, but all the time being sustained by their deep friendship.
It has been 35 years since City Girl was published. It and its sequel, Apartment 3B, sold more than 100,000 copies in two years. What are your memories?
Going straight to number one and staying there for months. Having the first print run of 12,000 books selling out in two weeks. Taking annual leave from my library job to go on The Late Late Show and a young fella telling me, at work in Finglas Library, on the Monday morning, that I was great. Young women identifying with my characters. Huge queues at signing sessions. It was a joyful rollercoaster.
And what have been the highlights since?
The best parts are my engagements with my wonderful, loyal readers.
You set out to show independent Irish women in a modern urban setting. Why do you think there was a gap in the market?
When I wrote City Girl in the late ‘80s, Maeve Binchy was our greatest commercial fiction author. She was writing about women in the ‘50s and ‘60s. No one was writing about modern Irish women, who were as dynamic and go-ahead as any heroines in New York and London that Judith Krantz, Barbara Taylor Bradford and others wrote about.
What trends and changes have you witnessed in the past three decades?
In the ‘90s, when I was first published, popular women’s fiction was huge. Then crime took over, and now we’re seeing the burgeoning popularity of fantasy and mythical fiction. I’m delighted to see Michael Joseph has published a novel about the Morrigan recently.
You were a librarian for many years. How important are libraries?
Libraries empower us, assist literacy, bring together communities, give access to information and are places of learning and pleasure, where all are equal, and membership is free.
You created The Open Door adult literacy series. Why?
A middle-aged man confided to me, when I worked in Ballymun Library, that he was learning to read and hated reading children’s books. One in four people have literacy problems and, at the time, the material to help the emergent reader was limited. I wrote a literacy novella, Second Chance, met Edwin Higel, managing director of New Island Books, and we began the Open Door Series – and inspired the Quick Reads series in the UK – and have made a difference to people on their journey to literacy.
When I interviewed you in 1992, you told me: ‘I know that this is an awful thing to say but I think that women are much more interesting. I think that women have to work much harder than men to get somewhere.’ Still true?
I love men, male energy, and their take on things, but yes, it’s still true.
Which projects are you working on?
My literary projects are taking a back seat as I work on an unanticipated project of healing from breast cancer. I was diagnosed on Friday, December 13th, have had three surgeries, and am hopefully getting a date for radiation soon. I hope when I’ve put it all behind me to continue co-writing a novel about the Goddess Macha – Armagh was named after her – with Deborah Sheehy, who has just written a fantastic nonfiction book, The Untold Stories of Ireland’s Goddesses.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
I have not. A treat to come.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
Dermot Bolger – a fellow librarian – gave this advice at a talk we gave. “Write with fire in your veins ... Edit with ice.” Perfect.
Who do you admire the most?
I admire my beloved late parents greatly.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
I’d abolish the law that forces women in Afghanistan to be covered from head to toe, their voices not to be heard, and education denied them.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin. Paddington in Peru. The Women’s Podcast.
Which public event affected you most?
Hearing the bombs explode in the Dublin bombings. The Stardust fire. In later years, the Enniskillen bombing brought despair.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
Newgrange. Alcázar of Seville. Gaudí‘s Sagrada Família. The Griffith Observatory. Impossible to choose.
Your most treasured possession?
My mother’s wedding ring.
What is the most beautiful book you own?
An illustrated copy of The Grey Goose of Kilnevin by Patricia Lynch.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Truman Capote, Cicero, Christine Dwyer Hickey.
The best and worst things about where you live?
The sea. I don’t have a worst.
What is your favourite quotation?
“There is a destiny that makes us brothers: None goes his way alone: All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.” Edwin Markham
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Jo March.
A book to make me laugh?
Ciara Smyth’s Not My Problem.
A book that might move me to tears?
The Countrywoman by Paul Smith.
