Catherine Ryan Howard: It can be hard to discern good advice from bitter experience

'The greatest advice I have ever been given is to write the book you want to read but can’t find on the shelf'

Catherine Ryan Howard Picture: Bríd O'Donovan

I grew up in Grange, County Cork — the eldest of three. My parents, John and Kathleen, still live there. My brother John is an actor and my sister Claire works in the Bon Secours. I should probably also mention Dexter, the dog who, yes, was named after a fictional serial killer. He lives with my parents while his sister, Millie, lives with my sister and her husband, Rob. Claire and Rob are newlyweds — they got married at Springfort Hall in October and that is the first time I’ve referred to him as her husband, which is lovely but also weird!

I don’t really believe in fate or destiny, but I knew I wanted to be a writer since before I even really knew how to read or write. When I was in Junior Infants in St Columba’s Douglas, the teacher would sit up on her desk and read books aloud to us, holding them facing out so we could see the pictures. After school, back home, I’d line up all my Barbies on my bed, climb up on my dressing table and ‘read’ books to them in the same way. I work with a picture on my desk of me, aged 8 on Christmas morning 1989, typing on the typewriter I’d asked Santa for. I think once I knew it could be your job, I knew that that was the job I wanted to have.