BEGINNER’S PLUCK: Paul Soye

FIRST-TIME novelist Paul Soye started out in social work. First he was a volunteer, then he had paid jobs, and, after a stint in France, he got a qualification. But he’s no stranger to writing. The 59-year-old is the prize-winning playwright of Cherished, and The Birdcage. But a novel seemed a step too far.

“Then I saw a photo in a Sunday paper,” says Soye. “It showed a bride and groom embarking on a shared life, but the accompanying story was about a gruesome murder. I realised this would not fit into a play or short story and that scared me. So I began by developing the main character, and wrote the novel in the first person.

“I wrote the first three chapters at NUI Galway, and at the end of the course, I was recommended to agent Jonathan Williams.”