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What was the starting point for Rachel's Holiday, and was it important to you to write about your addiction?
The addicted character was the starting point. I had already touched on addiction in Lucy Sullivan's Getting Married, through her dad's alcoholism, and it was a further step to actually write about addiction first-hand. I still love writing about addiction and alcoholism because it is so pivotal to who I am and I know that maybe the next book that I write, not the novel I am writing at the moment, but possibly book seven, will be about a recovering alcoholic.
I'm very interested in addiction in all it's manifestations because I think we live in very addictive times and it's possible to get addicted to so much and not just the traditional substances like drink and drugs, but food, exercise, work and unsuitable men. I am fascinated by, not so much by the addiction I suppose, but the recovery from it. I love the process of how human beings heal and it's something that I keep wanting to explore and certainly with Rachel's Holiday it was a definite decision to write about a character who was mired with addiction, and mired in denial.
Did you find writing about your own alcoholism, as opposed to that of a fictional character, hard?
It wasn't that hard because I've talked about it a lot in press interviews and they've so rarely quoted me accurately or the headlines have been so sensational, that I was delighted to have this opportunity to tell the story of my addiction and my recovery in my words, without having someone else's agenda distorting the direction of it. There is a kind of taboo around alcoholism, there's still a stigma attached to it, especially to female alcoholics, but I don't judge myself, I'm not ashamed of it. I wouldn't have wished it on myself but I've come through it and I've been lucky enough to have recovered from it, and it's made me the person I am today. It's made me a more compassionate person than I probably would have been if I hadn't gone through that kind of horrific time. So it was fine to write about it and it's the most accurate account that has been published.
Does your family provide inspiration?
The writing in Under the Duvet is 'real life' and I'm very fond of my family, we're a very colourful lot. There are five siblings altogether, but it feels like lots more, we're all kind of volatile and I think the whole thing comes from my mother who is very, very funny although on the outside she was a very well behaved Irish Catholic mammy. The columns have been inspired by a lot of things, like I had a party and I was so afraid that nobody would come so I made my brother bring fifty-seven of his closest friends, and he actually did.
In Under the Duvet you describe working at a magazine as research for Sushi for Beginners. If you weren't an author do you think you could have made it in the glamorous world of magazine publishing?
I'm absolutely sure I couldn't, I would be so clueless. Everyone who worked there always looked so effortlessly glossy and they always looked 'band box fresh'. They never had mascara smudges under their eyes and their hems and buttons never fell off, but that's me - my heels fall off my shoes, I forget things - I would be absolutely dreadful in that world. I would be totally intimidated, so that is one job I don't yearn for in a parallel life.
Is there anything you miss about London now that you've moved back to Ireland?
I miss loads of things about London. I still have a lot of friends here and that's difficult, and the shoe shops, good Lord, Dublin is great and has caught up in an awful lot of ways, but for some reason it is shamefully remiss in the shoe shop department. I love the buzz of London and I love the architecture - I've only noticed it now that I don't live here anymore.
Out of the all the books you've written which was the hardest book to write?
Watermelon was the easiest because I hadn't a clue what I was doing, and they say a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. The second book, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, was much harder, I thought I could replicate the light hearted approach I took to Watermelon and I was told by my editor to go back into myself, into my darkness and make it a more interesting book. The third book Rachel's Holiday was even harder and the killer was Last Chance Saloon. I fully expected that every book would just get tougher, but Sushi for Beginners was an absolute joy to write from start to finish - it just wanted to be written. I would continue to do it even if it was hard because I think it's worth doing and I love doing it. |
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