Author describes life with ‘punishing’ Gebler

NOVELIST Edna O’Brien has revealed her first husband was so jealous of her writing ability he said he would never forgive her.

She also recalled how a parish priest in the parish of Scariff near where she grew up in Co Clare burned a copy of The Country Girls over its depiction of sex and relationships.

Speaking on the RTÉ programme, The Meaning of Life, presented by Gay Byrne, the novelist and short story writer said her husband, Ernest Gebler, was a “judgmental or punishing figure”.