Beginners pluck

Alison grew up near Birr in Offaly, where there were loads of books.

“Before I was 10 I’d read Tolstoy and Turgenev. My favourite was Enid Blighton, but the classics passed the time beautifully.”

After school Alison took a secretarial course, got a job, and married someone from work. She had three children before she was 24. She worked for an architect for 20 years, but also wrote, and had bits and pieces published.

Who is Alison Maxwell

Date of birth: November 14, 1951.

Education: Sketchy. After running away from a local convent, Alison attended Sutton Park, Dublin. “I was so behind, at 13, I was in with nine year olds. I caught up fast, but left after my Inter cert.”

Degree in Arts and Humanities from the Open University.

Home: Near Maynooth, Co Kildare.

Family: Husband Dudley, children Gareth, Naomi, and Simon. And granddaughter, Siiri.

The Day Job: A writer.

Hobbies: Painting. “I love it, because you don’t have to think.”

Favourite Writers: Sebastian Faulks. Hugo Hamilton. Eve Green by Sylvia Fletcher.

Second Novel: “I’d love to do another memoir book like this one.”

Top Writing Tip: Bum on seat. “That’s it. It’s putting yourself there and seeing what happens.”

Web/Twitter: Neither.

THE DEBUT

Jammet’s of Dublin 1901 – 1967. By Alison Maxwell and Shay Harpur. The Lilliput Press €15. Kindle: Not available

Shay Harpur died 10 years ago. One time the sommelier in Jammet’s, the Dublin restaurant favoured by the eccentric and famous, Shay wrote an account of a day there. Shay’s widow, Jackie, asked Alison to look at the manuscript. She typed it up, then, with her agent, Jonathan Williams’ encouragement, she added the history of the restaurant, and stories around it.

The Verdict: A superb social history, evoking the workings of a restaurant that became an Institution, through the eyes of those who adored it. Wonderfully produced.

— Interviewed by Sue Leonard