Today in our online books series, author of This is How it Ends, KATHLEEN MACMAHON tells Sophie Grenham about her favourite eateries, books and WHAT SHE MISSES about the RTE newsroom …
Kathleen MacMahon worked as a reporter for RTÉ for fifteen years before going down the literary road. Her first book deal broke records at the London Book Fair in 2011, with her debut novel This Is How It Ends, a runaway success. Her involving and witty style has been praised by the late Maeve Binchy, to which she attributed “a confidence and ease…with an unerring sense of timing.”
Kathleen lives in Irishtown with her husband and twin daughters. Her new book The Long, Hot Summer, is currently dominating the best-seller shelves.
On her local haunts
When we moved into Irishtown fifteen years ago, the Glass Bottle Company was still in operation; now it’s all Google and Facebook. The greasy spoons have been replaced by trendy cafés and gastro pubs. We’re spoiled for places to eat and drink, but my favourites are Junior’s and Paulie’s on Bath Avenue/Grand Canal Street for great food, and the Vintage Inn for pints.
On how she creates
I move like a wandering minstrel about the house. I tend to put in an hour or two on the couch in the early morning. Once I’m vertical, I’ll gravitate towards the kitchen table and write with coffee as needed. The desk tends to be the final stage of the day, when I’m really reconciled to the fact that this is work, not pleasure. I have a lot of books around me, as a gentle reminder of what I’m trying to achieve.
On her favourite local book seller
Books on the Green in Sandymount is a great little neighbourhood bookstore. There’s always a lovely jumble of new books on the table. I would love to see the day when the local bookshop becomes as much a staple as the bookies and the pub.
On her classic reads
‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is one of my all time favourite novels. I love ‘A Preayer for Owen Meany’ by John Irving and ‘The English Patient’ by Michael Ondaatje.
On changing careers
There’s no place more fun to work than a newsroom and I’ve tried to capture a bit of that in my new book. I loved the sense of shared interests and the black humour that you have amongst journalists, and I miss all of that enormously. But my book deal presented me with a fork in the road and there was never really any doubt in my mind as to which direction I had to take.
This Is How It Ends (€12.65) and The Long. Hot Summer (€18.99) are published by Sphere and available nationwide.
Image via Eoin Rafferty in The Vintage Inn
Sophie Grenham
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