Louise O'Neill: 'I don’t know what I will do with my own diaries'

I’ve found comfort in listening to Sugar Calling, a podcast in which Cheryl Strayd, the author of the memoir Wild, turns to her favourite writers for inspiration during these uncertain times. In the first episode, she spoke to George Saunders, the short story writer, and he read aloud an email he had sent to his graduate students. In the email he wrote, “this is when the world needs our eyes and ears and minds. This has never happened before here, at least not since 1918. We are – and especially you are - the generation that is going to have to help us make sense of this and recover afterwards…

Are you keeping records of the emails and texts you’re getting, the thoughts you’re having, the way your hearts and minds are reacting to this strange new way of living?

… Fifty years from now, people the age you are now won’t believe this ever happened, or will do the sort of eyeroll we all do when someone tells us about something crazy that happened in 1960. What will convince that future kid is what you are able to write about this, and what you are able to write about it will depend on how much sharp attention you’re paying now and what records you keep.”