Beginner’s pluck: Part-time GP Claire Gleeson

Claire Gleeson: 'I always considered that writing was something I would do alongside something else.' Picture: Steve Langan

Medicine has interested Claire since she visited a friend in hospital at weekends, aged 11 or 12. But reading has been the greatest joy in her life.

“I was a bookish child who wanted to do little else,” she says, “but I
always considered that writing was something I would do alongside something else.”

Leaving university, Claire was an intern in Tallaght hospital.

“Then I trained to be a GP,” she says. “That involved two years’ rotation in a hospital job, then two years in a practice under supervision.”

After her first child was born, Claire took a year off and moved to Cornwall.

“In 2017 when we came back to Dublin, I’d had a second child and have had a third since.”

I started working part-time and now do three short days a week.

By that stage, Claire had published several stories.

“The first was in 2014. It gave me such a boost and spurred me on to write a novel. I’d written two before this one.”

She wrote in the car, in snatched minutes, but now writes on her free mornings, and at weekends.

Hearing stories of familicide, Claire wondered what it would be like to survive and carry on living.

“It would bring up complex feelings of loss, guilt, and lack of trust in one’s judgement.

“You’d have to reassess what went on before. I couldn’t get that out of my head.”

Who is Claire Gleeson?

Date/place of birth: 1982/ Dublin.

Education: Maryfield College, Drumcondra. Trinity College Dublin, Medicine.

Home: Dublin.

Family: Husband, John. Children aged 11, 7, and 4.

The day job: Part-time GP in Ballymun.

In another life: “I’d be a singer in the chorus of a West End musical.”

Favourite writers: Kate Atkinson; Kazuo Ishiguro; Curtis Sittenfeld; Sarah Moss; Jane Harper; Meg Mason.

Second book: “I’ve written 25,000 words on two different ideas. I’ll have to choose.”

Top tip: “Write to the end; you can fix it later.”

Website: www.clairegleeson.com

The debut

Show Me Where It Hurts

Sceptre, €16.99/ Kindle, €12.86

Rachel is happy with Tom and their two children. But in one shocking instant he destroys everything. How can she live with such inexplicable loss?

The verdict: Superb. Written with amazing compassion and authenticity.

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