Author interview: Hobby author? Graham Norton is a serious book man

Graham Norton’s new book, ‘Frankie’, tells the tale of an orphaned schoolgirl who goes on to enter the world of bohemian art, as told through her own eyes to a West Cork carer. Picture: Ellie Smith

• Frankie
• Graham Norton 
• Hodder, €15.99

I am scanning the Gallery bar upstairs in the Westbury Hotel in Dublin, looking for Graham Norton. It takes me a while to locate him, discreetly tucked away in a corner. 

For someone whose extroverted personality helped him become as much a celebrity as the famous people who flock to his chat show red couch, in real life he is very much in understated mode. 

Which is fitting as I remind myself I am here to talk to Graham Norton the writer, not the celebrity. 

He is publicising his novel Frankie, the latest book in his late-flourishing reinvention as an author.

It is hardly a surprise to hear that Norton is great company, and while it is slightly intimidating to be quizzing one of the best interviewers out there, he puts me at ease straight away. 

I note that my initial ice-breaker — whether he had any tips on how to warm up an interviewee — seems redundant.

“Normally I’d say drink, but it’s too early for that,” he laughs.

Norton is also quick to disabuse me of the notion that he will be offended if I stray beyond the parameters of book promotion: “Feel free to talk about the chat show.”

When I do book events, the interviewer always says ‘we will only talk about the book’. And I say no, people might want to hear a little bit about the book, but if we don’t talk about the chat show, they’re going to go away disappointed.

I do want to talk about the book though, not least because it is an interesting departure from his previous four novels.

“This one seems to be landing a bit differently,” he says. “I think that is maybe because it leans more into emotion than plot and in the past I’ve always leant more towards plot than emotion.”

The Frankie of the title begins life as Frances Howe, an orphaned schoolgirl condemned to an austere existence with an aunt and uncle in West Cork in the 1950s. 

After an ill-fated marriage to a cold-hearted Protestant clergyman, she ends up in London and later New York, where she becomes part of the bohemian art world. 

It is a skilfully crafted narrative, framed by an 84-year-old Frankie living in London, recounting the story of her life to Damien, a carer who also happens to be from West Cork.

The book illustrates the power of being heard by another human being. Listening is a central element of Norton’s career, even if he says he wasn’t always good at it:

“I think I’ve learned to listen more on the chat show. I’m putting together a book event tour so I’m looking at old clips of the chat show and oh my God, I would talk for hours. 

“My questions were so long, they went on and on and on. I mean, it’s horrible to watch those clips, but at least I can sit there thinking I’m a bit better than I was then.”

Host Graham Norton during the filming for the 'Graham Norton Show': 'I’m looking at old clips of the chat show and oh my God, I would talk for hours.' File picture: Matt Crossick/PA

For some, getting older means becoming less visible or regarded in the world. It’s a feeling which Norton is not immune of.

“There is that weird thing I find where what people see isn’t who you are,” he says. 

“I was walking the dog recently, waiting to cross the street, and there were some kids on the other corner, and I don’t know why, but it suddenly struck me, oh, those kids just see an old man with a dog. 

“In my head, I am so not that person. As you go through life, you present as different things. I used to present gay. Now I present old.”

Frankie and Damien, a gay man, are both emigrants from Ireland and the emotional isolation it represents for both of them. 

Norton left his home in Bandon, Co Cork, for London after dropping out of University College Cork. Does the book reflect his own experience?

“Damien’s experience, in a way, mirrors mine in that he felt he had to leave Ireland,” he says. “And certainly that thing of losing yourself in London that he has done, I did that big time. 

“There has to be some of Frankie in me, because I went to London, I went to America, but I don’t feel that present in this book. 

“It’s always a bit weird because people want to find you in the books. And clearly, it all came out of my head, so I am in there.”

If you wanted to psychoanalyse me, you know, there’s five novels now, it’s all there, like there can’t be much left in this shallow brain of mine.

Anyone who has observed Norton’s career knows he is being self-deprecating. 

He is one of the best broadcasters on this side of the Atlantic, his career encompassing chat shows, radio shows, quiz shows, talent shows, the Eurovision gig, not to mention his former career as a comedian and actor (who could forget his appearances as the hyperactive Fr Noel Furlong on Father Ted) and a sideline as a wine producer. 

Norton’s humility is perhaps a particularly Irish defence mechanism against any suggestion that he would ever get above himself.

 He wouldn’t acknowledge it but his skills as a writer are clear on the page. However, he isn’t the slightest bit offended by any suggestion that he is not a ‘proper’ writer.

“I mean, I am a hobby author,” he says. “I’m under no illusion, my job is hosting a chat show.

“And it’s because of that job that I’ve been granted all these amazing opportunities. So I won’t forget that. That is not to say I don’t take the book seriously. I do.”

He also knows what it takes to sell books — and who buys them. He passes on a nugget of wisdom from his sister, who worked for many years as a librarian in Bandon:

“She says that for a book to be really successful, people who don’t read books need to buy it. My book events are really just ‘man off the telly’ events. 

“I think they did do some research in Britain on my readers and it skewed older and female. But actually, that’s who reads books, it is not my books, just books.”

Norton has spent another pleasurable summer in his home in Ahakista in West Cork, although he bemoans the dive in water temperature: “I go swimming every day. September arrived and it was like, someone pulled a switch, it was like melted ice.”

He muses on the irony of leaving to disappear into the big city life in London, only to achieve his dream of becoming famous, before returning home: 

“What I didn’t like about small-town Ireland was everyone knowing everything about you, so I went to London, and loved it, because I was totally anonymous. 

“And then I’ve done this fucked up thing to myself, which is so counter-intuitive. I mean, I imagined it in a way. I remember being on the Tube, going up the escalator and stuff, and imagining it was the opening titles of a show or something.”

Main character energy, as the kids call it.

Yeah, so I was having main character energy and now, when I’m on the Tube, it’s like, ‘oh, right, this is actually happening now’. So yes, it’s a very odd that thing that I’ve done.

As we wind up, true to his word, Norton is happy to talk about the guests he has had on the chat show, including Taylor Swift.  He was at one of her recent gigs in Dublin, in the VIP tent.

“I felt so rude afterwards, I didn’t understand so I just took loads of friendship bracelets and didn’t give any back,” he says.

Does he ever pinch himself when he’s working and socialising with people like her?

“All the time. This is a woman who can change the economy of a country by showing up but she comes across as super-normal. Let’s big up Taylor Swift’s mother because she raised her right,” he says.

“But fame is an odd thing. She has probably got the most currency right now but Cher has been famous for 60 years. So, I’m probably more excited to meet Cher. 

“With the legacy stars, I’ve grown up watching their films or their performances have struck me and I remember who I was with or where I was when I saw them.”

As for guests he would like to have on, there are a few he says: “We’ve never had Brad Pitt, which is odd. There are people coming up all the time — someone like [singer] Chappell Roan, I’d love to have her on. She is the real deal, she’s proper.”

The same could be said for Norton himself.