Healthy chapter

PLAYWRIGHT and novelist Belinda McKeon says she has learned most about health from her parents who brought her up on the family farm in Co Longford.

“They brought us all up to get plenty of fresh air, run around - usually after stray cattle - eat lots of veg and stay away from fake food. My father smoked but gave up when we were kids. He didn’t want us to have a justification for smoking too and it worked, though I know it was really hard for him,” says the 32-year-old, whose debut novel, Solace, won Best Irish Newcomer of the Year at the Irish Book Awards in November. The book was also voted Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book of the Year for 2011.

Belinda, who lives with husband Aengus Woods in Brooklyn, New York, was visiting her parents when news of the book award arrived.