PS, I love writing
CECELIA AHERN is happy. Life is good. Her second baby, Sonny, was born in July, joining Robin, who is two. She’s written a screenplay for German TV, to be filmed in Ireland. Her new book has received glowing early reviews from critics.
“I’m falling over with shock,” she says. “I’m delighted. Thrilled. I always say reviews don’t matter, but now I’ve good ones I’m jumping up and down.”
Since getting her legendary book deal in 2002, Ahern has endured begrudgery. “My reviews weren’t all bad; but they were all about my dad, or Westlife, and, for once, they’ve put that aside. When Joseph O’Connor is reviewed, they never talk about Sinead.”
One Hundred Names features Kitty, a journalist who wrongly accused a teacher of child abuse on a TV programme. That premise is close to the case of Fr Kevin Reynolds’ libel action against RTÉ. Prime Time Investigates had alleged that the Galway priest fathered a child with a Kenyan woman. Substantial damages had to be paid and the journalist at the centre of the report — Aoife Kavanagh — eventually resigned from the station.
“There’s no connection,” says Ahern. “I don’t even know enough about that case. When I studied journalism, every week we had a media law class. We watched a show where a mistake had been made, and that was in my head. I wanted a journalist who had made a mistake that was hard to live with, even if done on the best of intentions, but it wasn’t based on those people.”
I last interviewed Ahern nine years ago, when PS I Love You came out. At 22, she was shy, but delightful. Today, she’s unaffected by success. She looks stunning, in a grey, patterned dress, worn with ankle books, and her face glows as she talks about her passion for writing. She giggles, and apologises for talking too much. There’s a delightful warmth about her, and lack of ego.
Ahern’s books since PS I Love You have contained a magical element. One Hundred Names is a straight story. It is a thoughtful exploration into the ethics of good journalism; though there are other stories woven in.
A mistake inspired Ahern’s title. “I was half-watching a TV ad for a movie, and I thought the actress said it was called One Hundred Names. That title did something to my head. I tried to figure out who all those people were, and by the time I realised the movie was actually called The Hunger Games, I had my title and idea, and was relieved that it was mine, and not hers,” she says.
The idea was too big, so Ahern tried others, but time was running out.
“I was in a panic, because in January, with my book deadline in June, and my baby due in July, I had the character of a journalist and the 100 names, but no clue how to put them together. I had never been under so much pressure.
“In January, I wrote a novella about a character with writer’s block. And, in February, the penny dropped. I decided to deal with six or seven people, not the whole 100. I wrote the book in three months; the fastest since Ps I Love You.”
The joy of it, for Ahern, was being able to use ideas that she had filed away, but that weren’t large enough, or ready for a novel of their own. They’re all feel-good stories, and one is of a man who fakes a marriage proposal to a friend every week, to reap the benefits.
“I got that idea when we were on honeymoon,” says Ahern. “We never had a proposal moment. On our honeymoon, I thought, ‘why don’t we have one now’? But I worried if someone saw us, they’d make a big thing of it, so we never did.
“I wrote the idea down, and the next night, at dinner, the couple beside us told us they’d just got engaged. We sent over champagne, then I thought, ‘they could have been pretending’. Venice is full of people who are newly engaged.”
Ahern used to write through the night. Since having children, she works in an office in Malahide, keeping regular hours. She writes in longhand, finding the process more creative.
In the book, Kitty is not altogether likeable. She makes dreadful mistakes, and has to learn, the hard way, to regain her journalistic values. This comes when her mentor, Constance, dies of cancer, leaving behind the idea she never got to write. Kitty has to work out what the list of 100 names means. “People say the main character represents the writer, but Kitty aggravates me. I’m Constance. I believe in writing because you love it. And in writing honestly about people. I do believe that everyone has a story that is interesting to other people. They just don’t know it,” she says.
Kitty isn’t the worst journalist in the book. Her ‘friend,’ from College, Richie, has no ethics. Was the book a way of taking revenge on all the journalists who have hurt her, over the years?
“There are some lovely journalists,” she says, quickly. “But there are people who don’t have good intentions. Some people have their story before they meet you.
“I’ve had lovely conversations with people, and have really opened up. I think, ‘they get me’, and then you read the piece and you might as well not have met with them. They had their story in the first place.”
It’s different in Germany.
“It’s crazy there. People have my face on T-shirts. Or they have photos I have never seen. There’re fan clubs, and they know what I’m doing before I do. It’s all ages and both sexes. At bookstore events, they have a stage and lighting. At one event, there were 400 people. People pay to go in,” she says.
Ahern has never embraced a glitzy life, and she’s not part of the writer’s life in Dublin. She’s happiest at home with her family. And they all live in Malahide. “My daughter is obsessed with Georgina’s twins, Rocco and Jay. She thinks they are Gods. My brother-in-law is in Strictly Come Dancing. I’ve nicknamed him Glitterballs,” she says.
As for her Dad, she’s working him to the bone.
“I got a family allotment in Malahide,” she says. “I thought I’d be totally hands-on, but I forgot how hard it is to bend when you’re pregnant. My dad is farmer Bertie. He’s in there growing all the veg. He’s out there all the time, when he’s not travelling.”
* One Hundred Names, by Cecelia Ahern, is published by Harper Collins: €16.99. Kindle: €9.50.
* Cecelia’s books are published in 46 countries, and have sold over 13m copies.
* Her first, PS I Love You, published in 2003, made the Richard and Judy list of 100 best books of the decade. It was longlisted for the Dublin Impac Award, and made into a Hollywood movie starring Hilary Swank.
* Cecelia co-created the ABC Emmy Award-winning TV comedy, Samantha Who?
* She adapted her novella, Mr Whippy, for the stage.
