The Booker prize-winning author on the evolution of the Irish writers’ scene, the unconscious bias facing female authors, and inspiration for her latest novel The Wren, The Wren
I remember very vividly the books I read in childhood. I also have a memory of learning how to write – I mean how to make the right shapes between the lines of the copybook. I don’t remember the content, but certainly, by 11, I was writing purely for the joy of it.
In the days of lockdown, I found myself reaching for poetry, especially old Irish poetry, and becoming very invested in the natural world. At the same time, I found myself stuck with a no-nonsense, get-over-yourself character called Carmel who was remembering a time of terrible rupture in her life, when her father abandoned his family. Once I made the father an Irish poet, those two strands came together.
I remember a time in the culture when people were surprised that women drove cars, when other women said, “How on earth do you do it?” and men complained about their lack of speed on the road, calling it dangerous. I think my best reading was done in my early twenties, in a time before the internet, when you went into a bookshop and scanned the shelves, read a paragraph here or there, and bought something because it caught your interest.
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