Beginner’s Pluck: Anne Madden's debut is an impressive, sweeping saga

The Belfast-born writer says she would love to have had the courage to be a strong political reader and to have sorted Northern Ireland’s problems

Anne Madden's 'The Wilderness Way' looks at post-Famine emigration in 19th century Irealnd.

Ann was a chatty, cheeky child, who adored both reading and writing.

“The local libraries were amazing,” she says.

But in her teens, academic stuff put her off — though she did write some poetry.

Leaving Oxford University, she returned to Belfast: “I looked into being a parliamentary researcher, but was also interested in journalism, so I waitressed for a year and took a diploma.”

After a year as a court reporter, she worked for The Irish News, becoming its health correspondent, and in 2005, did a series of features on HIV in Uganda, with Concern.

Moving to London, she worked for the Red Cross as an international writer, travelling to Uganda, Nigeria, and China.

“But mostly I wrote campaign appeals for disasters. I was there for three years, and covered the tsunami, Hurricane Catriona, and the July 7 London bombs. It was a heady time.”

After meeting her partner, she returned to Belfast, and worked freelance for two health charities, and for the  Belfast Telegraph.

Who is Anne Madden?

Date/place of birth: 1976/Belfast.

Education: Belfast Royal Academy; Somerville College, Oxford, Modern History; Ulster University, Graduate Diploma in Newspaper Journalism.

Home: Belfast.

Family: Partner, Heather, (a doctor). Dog Jodie (Cavalier King Charles spaniel).

The day job: "Communications and policy for an environmental and health charity, promoting walking and cycling.”

In another life: “I’d love to have had the courage to be a strong political reader and to have sorted Northern Ireland’s problems.”

Favourite writers: Anna Burns; Sebastian Barry; Edith Wharton; Charles Dickins; Elaine Feeney; Ciara Geraghty.

Second book: “I’ve written a few chapters of a follow up.”

Top tip: “Trick you brain. Tell yourself you’re writing for half an hour — before you know it, an hour-and-a-half have passed.”

Twitter/X: @madsteranne

The debut

The Wilderness Way
One More Chapter, €11.51/ Kindle, €2.50

It’s 1861, and Declan is struggling to keep his family together after his father’s death in the famine. He’s coping, until his landlord turfs the family out. In despair, he goes to America, and enlists for the US army, fighting for Lincoln.

“Irish people have been experiencing emigration for centuries. It should make us more compassionate to others”

The verdict: An impressive, sweeping saga, full of drama.