BEGINNER’S PLUCK

Muriel Bolger became a journalist when her children were in secondary school. A freelance journalist, editor, and award-winning travel writer, she had never tried fiction.

“I wrote some guide books of Dublin six years ago, but never wrote short stories. But when a cat jumped onto my lounger on a beach in Cyprus, a story came into my mind. I wrote it, then thought I could stretch it. I did a flashback, and invented a group of friends.”