Beginner’s pluck: Artist and writer Gethan Dick

Originally wanting to work in film, Gethan Dick changed her mind during her degree, and switched to writing. Picture: Gabrielle Dumon

Before Gethan was eight years old, she had lived in Belfast, Downpatrick, Sussex, and several locations in Ireland.

“My dad was a doctor. We travelled while he trained, and until he was assigned to a GP practice in Sligo.

“By then, I’d been to six primary schools. I was the eldest of four girls. We had a lot of freedom.”

Originally wanting to work in film, Gethan changed her mind during her degree, and switched to writing.

“After my MA, I wrote performance poetry and some text-based art.

When I met my partner, Myles, we started making art together.

And in 2011 we moved to Marseilles working as visual artists.

All that time, Gethan was thinking about writing a post-apocalyptic novel, including childbirth.

“But until I had children I didn’t know how. In first lockdown, we lived in a stone cabin in Provence, with no electricity, running water, toilet, or internet.

“I started thinking how annoying it would be if the world ended before I got around to writing my book.”

With Myles’s encouragement, they cleared some weeks, and she wrote a first draft.

“Then I contacted an editor I’d met during my MA, who was now an agent.”

Who is Gethan Dick?

Date/ place of birth: 1980/ Belfast.

Education: Sligo Grammar School; Dublin City University, Communication Studies. Goldsmiths, MA in Creative Writing; Camberwell College of Art.

Home: Marseilles.

Family: Partner Myles, children Kaï, 11, and Zeéleie, 9.

The day job: “I work as an artist/writer.”

In another life: “I might have been a marine biologist. I love being out in the world.”

Favourite writers: Kurt Vonnegut; Jean Giono. “And I love reading popular science.”

Second book: “Maybe I should write about what happens to my characters next.”

Top tip: “Myles’s advice was, ‘stop talking about it and write the fucking book’. And be lucky.”

Website: gethanandmyles.blogspot.com

The debut

Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night

Tramp Press, €16

Famine has left London a morgue. Hearing of sanctuary in the Southern Alps, an underachieving millennial, a retired midwife, and a Rastafarian Dubliner cycle there on a journey fraught with danger.

The verdict: An optimistic debut, this centres on love, motherhood, childbirth, and resilience and it’s glorious — funny, thought provoking, and wise.