My Saturday with Sarah Webb: 'I read about 300 children’s books a year'

Author Sarah Webb pictured at Castletownsend West Cork. Picture: Emma Jervis

07.00

I get up at around 7am and write in my diary — I’ve done it since I was a teenager and my teenage entries are fascinating because I’m a completely different person. Sometimes I’ll get creative and go off on tangents and sometimes it’s just about the weather — it depends on my humour.

If I’m feeling up to it I’ll do 30 minutes of yoga, Yoga with Adriene on YouTube, or if I’m off work, I’ll go to a yoga class at 10am.

08.00

If I’ve been organised, I’ll have yoghurt, fruit and muesli. If I’m not, a bagel with jam. I’ll have juice or water — I’ve never been a coffee or tea drinker. I’ll walk our rescue dogs Lucky and Poppy on the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire.

09.30

On Saturdays, I usually work in Halfway up the Stairs in Greystones where I’m the events manager. It’s one of the very few specialist bookshops for children in Ireland. We are very busy on Saturdays, sometimes there will even be people waiting outside when we open at 10am.

If I’m not working in the bookshop, I’ll write for three or more hours in bed. I write in a notebook in the initial stages of writing and then migrate to the computer later on in the process. I love that time in the morning when it’s quiet and the dogs and kids (aged 19 and 22) haven’t woken up yet. I sometimes take two or three hours in the morning to daydream or work on a new book.

On Mondays and Tuesdays, which are my main writing days, I don’t let myself leave the bedroom until I’ve written something. It might sound extreme, but I’ve written 53 books that way. You have to be disciplined.

13.00

I like to treat myself to something nice on a Saturday. I love the chocolate mousse from the Happy Pear or a croissant from Bread 41. I’ll take it to the back of the shop and read while I’m eating. I read about 300 children’s books a year — both for review and because I love them.

At the moment I’m reading The Last Death Poet by Stephen Daly — it’s his first book and it’s absolutely terrific (if a little scary).

14.00

The afternoon is when the events take place. We might also have kids coming in to collect their book club books or to buy birthday presents. We’ll have people coming in for recommendations — one of our favourite parts of the job. We also run workshops for adults who want to write children’s books.

Award-winning children's author and Ireland Reads ambassador Sarah Webb is encouraging people to get lost in a good book this February, as part a national campaign led by Libraries Ireland.

People think that kids don’t read, but they really do. The under-10s are voracious readers, but children don’t come across books without an interested adult.

All you need is one adult to take an interest in their reading. We get a lot of grandparents, aunts and uncles and godparents signing up to our monthly personalised book subscription service. Comics books are hugely popular too, and we’ll have kids waiting for their next instalment of Dogman or of Sarah Bowie’s books.

17.30

We close up shop at 5.30pm and I’ll head home. My other half is a great cook and does most of the cooking in the house. If we’re going out, we might go to Rasam in Glasthule and need no excuse to go to the Belli Dentro family restaurant. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 15 or 16 (although I did eat sausages until I was 22)!

20.00

I love curling up with my other half to watch a series or a movie. We love a medical drama — we’re long-term Grey’s Anatomy fans. I can’t watch anything that has violence or bloodshed, car chases or shooting in it, so that narrows things down. I like things about history and he likes science fiction but he has to watch that on his own.

We might go to a gig in the Pavilion Theatre. I’m looking forward to seeing David O’Doherty there. In the summer, I’ll usually be sailing, so you’ll find me in the yacht club. I’ve been sailing since I was a child.

22.30

I’ll go to bed early and read for hours — even on a Saturday night I’m happy to do that. Again, it will mostly be children’s or young adult books but I do read books for adults too. I’ve recently read Tanya Sweeney’s Esther is Now Following You which was terrific.

Award-winning children’s author and Ireland Reads ambassador Sarah Webb is encouraging people to get lost in a good book this month as part of a national campaign.
Led by Libraries Ireland and culminating in a nationwide celebration of reading on February 28, Ireland Reads encourages readers to explore recommendations from their local library, irelandreads.ie.