My Saturday with Kit de Waal: I start writing at 9pm - that's how I deal with insomnia

Award-winning writer Kit de Waal. Picture: Alison Miles/OSM PHOTO

10.00

If I’m not at a literary festival, and I’m at home in Leamington Spa, I will get up at 10am. 

I have a newfangled coffee machine which looks like the Starship Enterprise – I’ll put that on and make a cup of coffee. 

If the weather is good, I’ll sit out in my tiny little courtyard – it’s my pride and joy. If it’s pissing down, I will sit in my nook. 

There’s a chair there that everyone likes to sit in so I only really get to use it in the morning.

11.30

I don’t eat breakfast. You know when people are in a hotel and they go down for breakfast at 8am? 

Well, the idea of hot food in the morning makes me gag.

The earliest I can eat breakfast is 11.30am.

12.00

I live in a flat which is a quarter of a Victorian mansion. I have a large living area and a lovely study that opens onto the garden. 

I have about 80 houseplants, so I’ll fuss around them and do the same in the garden. 

I love my home and I love to potter. I love craft, design and interiors and have a lot of books on the subject. 

I like to curate my house over and over again. It won’t look any different to anyone else, but I like to live in an environment that makes me feel both inspired and calm, and I am always trying to achieve that.

I might go to my study to check my emails or to make note of ideas I’ve had the night before. 

I might allow myself the luxury of another coffee and a book. 

I am the chair for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction this year, so I’ve been exclusively reading books by women. 

I’m continuing with that, though I’m also gagging to read Stephen Grosz’s latest book Love’s Labour.

13.00

I might have something to eat, maybe a sandwich made with thin bread and lots of fillings with a cup of tea.

14.00

I might go for a walk – there are lovely parks and a beautiful river nearby. 

I’m obsessed with audiobooks so I’ll listen to an audiobook which will keep me out walking for longer. 

I’m currently listening to Niall Williams’ This is Happiness.

Kit De Waal attends the Costa Book of the Year awards at Quaglino's on January 28, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

15.30

I do a lot of different things, but when I am at home I feel like I’m the ‘writer’. People think I’m an extrovert but I love my own company. 

I can do crowds well, I can do parties and small talk, but my inner peace is found in quietness so if I’m at home and not at a festival, it will be quiet.

If my social battery gets depleted I really have to go home – nowhere else will do. Some people call it the ‘social battery’, I call it my ‘bag of smiles’.

When that bag is empty I have to fill it up again so that I can be a nice human being.

If I’m at a literary festival it’s very different – I will get stuck in and I love championing writers – but a perfect weekend at home would see me wafting around in pyjamas and a robe feeling like a 1930s film star.

I’m very excited to be appearing at Write by the Sea. I consider it my ‘home festival’ and I wouldn’t miss it for the world, even as a punter.

I adore Kilmore Quay and I can’t wait to see my dear friend Cat Hogan.

18.00

I am seeing a man at the moment. He’s a really nice guy and a great companion. 

We might go out to dinner or watch a film or some tennis which I am obsessed with.

We’ll have tapas and wine (early, because I’m now an old codger) at a gorgeous tapas bar called Grace & Vine.

Later I might watch telly – an old black and white movie or a good crime drama – I’m currently watching Gomorrah.

22.00

If I feel like writing I will write any time from 9pm or 10pm onwards.

I have insomnia so the way I deal with that is to have something to write or read – I don’t fight it any more.

01.00

The earliest I go to bed is 1am. It’s fine because I don’t get up early unless I have a meeting or a plane to catch. 

I use the Calm app and might do a ‘mind cleanse’ and try to go to sleep but often I’ll be doing the shopping in my head or thinking about Coronation Street – I do have a bit of a wild, untamed mind.

I’ve been watching Coronation Street my whole life and my mother watched it when she was pregnant with me. I think people underestimate how difficult it is to write a soap opera. 

Some are more successful than others but I think they’re a good lesson in storytelling. 

They’re about high stakes in a low stakes life – a girl struggling with a new baby, the guy down the garage that can’t pay his bills… They’re people I can identify with.

• Write By the Sea celebrates its 10th anniversary this September 26-28 with a vibrant programme of readings, talks and workshops in Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford.
• Author Kit de Waal will be joined by Christine Dwyer Hickey to talk to Dr. Richard Hayes about forgiveness, found family and the true nature of love and connection as she discusses her latest novel The Best of Everything.
• writebythesea.ie