Novelist asks public to vote on return home

AN Irish novelist living in France for 10 years is asking the public to decide her future by voting on if she should return home.

Liz Ryan, from Dublin, quit her job, sold her house and moved to a remote hamlet in Normandy in 2001 after she got fed up with the hectic life of the Celtic Tiger boom.

However, after a decade in a picturesque French village enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle she is missing home.

The novelist is now asking the public to decide if she should stay in France or return to Ireland — despite our crippling economic recession — by voting on her future.

“I woke up one morning suddenly sick — almost literally — of commuting 12 hours a week. My job, once a joy, had degenerated into a farce.

“Just one more mid-life crisis, amongst millions — but I was lucky. I could do something about it. For some, life begins at 40 with a Porsche or an affair or an assault on the Himalayas; for me, it would entail quitting my job, selling my house, ditching my comfortable lifestyle and abandoning some very good friends.”

She said that for many the early 21st century was Ireland’s finest hour as the economy was booming “transforming the former famine country from pauper to prince”.

“But ironically, wealth was proving to come expensive, on a wave of drugs, crime, political corruption, material greed and spiritual erosion,” she said. “All the signposts were pointing to France.”

During the last 10 years living in France, Liz has enjoyed having time to write, eating delicious food, and spending days on the beach.

However, in her latest book French Leave: An Irishwoman’s Adventures in Normandy she details what she misses about Ireland.

“And yet there is the hill of Howth on a summer’s evening, the theme tune to the Ronan Collins Show, chicken and chips after a walk in the Wicklow hills, U2 at Croke Park, Leopardstown, Lisdoonvarna, Irish coffee, which only properly exists in Ireland, Reeling in the Years, turf fire, Eamon Dunphy and black humour.”

Liz is asking people to vote on her future on her Facebook page http://tinyurl.com/4t6chyj