Sudden Cardiac Death.
Greg and Elsa Leonard
And Sandra
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Independent, 21st January 2009.
Francis Leonard was a fit 29 year old. The youngest of four boys, he had never been happier. He’d just completed a Masters, and was excelling at his job with Intel. He’d moved in with his girlfriend, Sandra McKay.
Francis was never sick. He wouldn’t take, even, an aspirin and his GP hadn’t seen him since he was 13. So when he died, suddenly; during a GAA match on 18th November, 2006, everyone was stunned.
“Francis was so diligent,” says his father, Greg. “And he loved keeping fit. That week he’d rung his club, Erin’s Isle to explain he had to work late and would miss training.
“Normally it was ‘no train, no game,’ but they said, ‘you are our number one player.’ And he swam, on the Friday, to make up for it. He swam 40 lengths.”
Greg and Elsa were off to England that weekend for a party.
“It was my brother’s birthday, and we were going as a surprise,” explains Greg. “We saw Francis on that Thursday. I remember seeing him out to the car. I gave him a big hug.”
Sandra remembers that Saturday morning.
“I remember him sitting on the couch, and the way he looked at me. We were so happy. We were watching ‘True Romance,’ his all time favourite film, and I had to run off. He came to the door.
“I went to the RDS for ‘Off the Rails’ with a friend. I bought a dress for the Intel Christmas party, then we went to Liffey Valley to eat. I had one bite of a chip, then my phone went. It was Francis’s brother, Greg. He said, ‘It’s Francis. It’s serious.’
“I completely panicked, and jumped into the car. And, now I think back I went the longest way to Blanchardstown. I ran into the hospital and saw someone on a table. It looked like Francis. And there was a priest standing there and I thought, ‘oh s**t.’”
Francis had died within seconds. The frantic efforts to revive him at the grounds; and the hour doctors worked on him in A and E, were all in vain.
“I still relive that day,” says Sandra. “I still feel the same pain. Every detail is so clear.”
Meanwhile, Greg and Elsa were shopping in Stevenage.
“And suddenly, I was so cold,” says Greg. “I told Elsa, and she thought I was mad. It was a lovely warm day.”
The phone started ringing at 4.00 pm. And though nobody actually told the couple that Francis was dead, they knew.
“I wanted to get back to Sandra, to see how she was doing,” says Elsa. “We flew from Stanstead, and she was at the airport with the boys.”
The house was full for the next few days.
“Everyone was so upset,” says Elsa, “and we tried to make the funeral happy. We wanted to celebrate his life. We got everyone to sing a song Francis had loved, ‘The Happy Song.’” The couple sing it for me, there and then.
Francis’s autopsy was confusing.
“The doctors said it showed Francis was healthy. There was no reason for his heart to stop beating. His heart was enlarged, but they put that down to his physical activity.”
It wasn’t until December 2006, when Greg and Elsa became the first patients to be screened in a new programme in Tallaght, that they realised what Francis had died of. Greg was identified with the Brugada’s syndrome gene, a syndrome discovered in 1992, where death happens because of the severe disturbances of the rhythm of the heart. There may be no symptoms.
Greg’s extended family are still being screened. But one of his other sons has the gene; along with uncles and cousins. Some of them have been fitted with an internal cardioverter defibrillator.
“One cousin had a son who died in Spain at 5,” says Greg. “We thought he had drowned, but now we know there was no water in his lungs. Clearly he had Brugada’s Syndrome too.”
Elsa thinks everyone should have an ECG routinely, to pick up such abnormalities.
“We go to the optician. We go to the dentist, and our heart is beating for us 80 times a minute,” she says.
Sandra is annoyed that she didn’t insist that Francis got screened.
“I knew about Cormac McAnally,” she says. “I was on to Francis about the amount of sport he was doing; but I never said ‘maybe you should get tested.’”
Sandra laughs as she remembers the man she has loved since she was 17.
“I talk about him all the time, to new friends as well as old ones. I have all these photos of our Australian trip, and of other holidays. Friends say ‘you can see he was special. He jumps off the page.’ He was always smiling.”
Elsa remembers how she had to bribe him to get him into college.
“I didn’t believe in bribing until Francis came along. He had to repeat his leaving certificate. I’m from Trinidad. I’ve taken the boys there twice, but Francis was too young to remember the first time. He always complained. So I said, ‘if you succeed to 3rd level I will take you.’
“He did college the hard way,” says Greg. “He went to IT to get a diploma, then to Galway for his degree. And he got a first.”
Greg is immensely proud of the son he lost. He tells me that Intel loved him. They have changed Francis’s office space into a ‘quiet corner’ for employees to take time to chill out.
“They call it the Francis corner,” he says.
“I can’t stop talking about Francis,” says Greg, as tears spring to his eyes. “He knew me so well. He knew all my faults. I talk to him all the time. I can hear him now, saying, ‘oh Da!’”
Their religion, the couple say, have helped them stay positive. As for Sandra, she has no regrets.
“If someone had said, when I was 17, all this will end in tears, I wouldn’t change a thing. I am positive and thankful that I had the time with him. Some people never find someone as special as Fran. If I never find anyone else it will have been worth it. Every second of it.”
ABOUT CARDIAC RISK IN YOUNG POEPLE.
· Over 5,000 people suffer sudden cardiac death in Ireland. 60 – 80 are under 35.
· Cardiac death in young people is mostly due to inherited heart disease or congenital defects.
· Screening is vital.
· The Centre for cardiovascular Risk in young people at The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, in Tallaght, was launched by Garret Fitzgerald on 10th November, 2008.
· The centre will screen at least 1,600 patients every year, but has already screened 500 people.
· The centre is supported by CRY- Cardiac Risk in the Young; a charity formed by parents of children who had died suddenly, who were troubled by the lack of medical and emotional support. Funding is provided by the Patches Trust and Individual benefactors.
· The centre provides a free service to young people at risk and families of someone who has suffered a sudden cardiac death.
· To be referred, ask a Consultant, GP, or the Charity, CRY.
For More Information; www.cry.ie
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Teens TV and Sex.
To read the article click on the link.
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/teens--tv-and--the-sex-factor-1542267.html
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/teens--tv-and--the-sex-factor-1542267.html
Enjoying a Credit Crunch Christmas.
Follow the link to read the article.
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/dont-let-the-credit-grinch-steal-christmas-1583094.html
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/dont-let-the-credit-grinch-steal-christmas-1583094.html
Parenting Resolutions.
Follow the link to read the article.
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/whats-your-new-year-parenting-resolution-1592385.html
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/whats-your-new-year-parenting-resolution-1592385.html
When a child has Autism.
Follow the link to read the article.
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/living-with-autism-1567236.html
http://www.herald.ie/lifestyle/parents/living-with-autism-1567236.html
Author Interview. Roisin McAuley.
Roisin McAuley.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner. 25th January 2009.
On the front of Roisin McAuley’s third novel, she is described as the new Maeve Binchy. This, to me, is a puzzle. McAuley does share Binchy’s keen eye for character and romance, but Finding Home is a complex tale blending politics, social commentary and romance in a way that puts it outside any genre.
Set in England, the action centres on Wooldene House; home to Henry, an ex army officer and his widowed sister Diana. When Louise and Rebecca, friends from BBC Belfast days choose the house for the Elizabethan drama they are filming, their lives interlink in interesting ways.
There are a wealth of secondary characters too; and all have been lovingly drawn. There’s Lucy, Diana’s aunt, who, in her confusion lets go of a long held secret. There’s pink haired Chloe, who turns out to hold a creative intelligence that saves the day.
The novel explores ageing; the loss of memory; the vagaries of romance, and the complexity of political affiliations. That this is achieved with such charm and humour is to McAuley’s credit.
“People are always trying to put me in a genre, and I am not,” agrees Roisin on the phone from Reading, in Berkshire. “I write about love and relationships, and I go for happy endings so I am labelled ‘romance’. But I want to put in politics, social commentary and a bit of comedy.
“I would like to rescue romance, in terms of the big handsome tradition of the 19TH Century novel as written by George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte or Jane Austen.”
That Roisin should write with such range is not so surprising when you look at her biography. Brought up in Belfast, She was at primary school, and university with Bernadette Devlin- now McAllister. After a stint as BBC Northern Ireland’s first woman newsreader, Roisin became the first Northern Ireland correspondent for the Cork Examiner.
“That was an amazing time,” she says. “It was 1974 the time of the Ulster Worker’s Council Strike. There were bombs and flying glass in the streets. You’d be in a telephone box with riots going on and bricks hurtling past dictating copy over the phone.”
After a spell in the Examiner’s London office Roisin returned to the BBC to work on the current affairs programme Spotlight. She has since worked, mostly freelance, on a series of documentary programmes including Panorama, as a reporter, and sometimes reporter producer director.
Roisin covered the Falklands war from Argentina. She covered the hostage situation in Beirut, and remembers being the only reporter in Hezbollah controlled West Beirut listening to reports of the Berlin Wall falling.
“I didn’t feel unsafe,” she says. “I knew it was pretty certain they would not kidnap a woman, and I was a citizen of Ireland. I was careful to route my calls to London through my brother in Dublin.
“Besides, journalists do that sort of thing all the time,” she says. “You are not in there thinking about the risks, and what was happening to people around you was infinitely worse.”
Later Roisin did her chemical weapons training in Porton Down.
“We put on a gas mask and ran around through CF gas, and I thought, ‘I’ve been in CF gas without a mask.’ She went to Palestine during the first Gulf war at the time they were firing scuds, but the war ended 2 days later. But she did get a coveted dinner interview with Yasser Arafat. “It was amazing to meet him,” she says. “He is such an iconic figure.”
Life, today, could not be more different for Roisin. She married a lawyer, Richard, in her forties, and now lives with him in Reading. She spends her days playing golf; playing bridge and writing her novels.
Does she miss the excitement of her former life?
“Of course I do. I really miss it,” she says. “But I didn’t really leave the job. The job left me.” It bothers Roisin that the wealth of current affairs programme the BBC used to air, has given way to the rash of celebrity and reality TV.
“The world is full of journalists doing brave and astonishing things, but I think we are in danger of losing that in this world of Big Brother. I would love to do, say, a documentary about what young people think in Iran, but if they were to commission a programme, they would insist on a celebrity presenter. The day of the reporter has gone.”
Writing about politics in her novels is some consolation. She enjoyed writing the scenes from Belfast, but was nervous that the element of ‘the troubles,’ might deter her potential readership.
“I know, from making documentaries how programmes from Northern Ireland can have people reaching for the off switch, but we gave the book to a couple of book groups and the younger people loved that element. It was history to them and they were really interested in the politics.
“I wanted to show, too, that Irish politics are not simple; that people’s views are conflicted.” This was once true in England, too. And Roisin shows this through exploring Henry’s Catholic ancestry. “I wanted people to have a sense that there was a time in England when people like Henry would have been regarded as enemies of the State.”
30 years ago, Roisin would have laughed if she’d been told she would one day write novels. Yet now, it feels like her natural form.
“That surprises me. Writing is hard work. It can be tedious. I work at every sentence and hope my writing is like a pane of glass that you can see the story through. You should never have to read a sentence again.
“I am obsessed by detail. If I say ‘it takes so many minutes to get from A to Z,’ I have done it. I am always checking details. I cannot continue to write until I have done so.”
Roisin hopes that her book will satisfy readers. And will give them a better understanding of the way in which human beings react.
“I wanted to make them all human. Henry has been in the army. He has made no secret of it but he has done, perhaps, not particularly laudable things. Louise’s brother was in the IRA, yet her father was in the army.
What is Roisin’s overriding message?
“Having been in a lot of places that have been torn apart, it seems to me, that what motivates people; what burns them up, and is a bigger factor than hunger, greed, power or sex, is a sense of fair play.
“The child in the playground saying, ‘it is not fair,’ is a cry that echoes everywhere. When people see that things are not fair they burn. And if they feel things are fair they can take a great deal.
“Northern Ireland is now a fair society. That is the biggest change there. The most extraordinary thing about Northern Ireland, it seems to me, is that after all those things that happened, we have got there. I have to pinch myself sometimes. It took thirty years but we got there!”
Finding Home by Roisin McAuley is published by Sphere Books at 11.99 euro.
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner. 25th January 2009.
On the front of Roisin McAuley’s third novel, she is described as the new Maeve Binchy. This, to me, is a puzzle. McAuley does share Binchy’s keen eye for character and romance, but Finding Home is a complex tale blending politics, social commentary and romance in a way that puts it outside any genre.
Set in England, the action centres on Wooldene House; home to Henry, an ex army officer and his widowed sister Diana. When Louise and Rebecca, friends from BBC Belfast days choose the house for the Elizabethan drama they are filming, their lives interlink in interesting ways.
There are a wealth of secondary characters too; and all have been lovingly drawn. There’s Lucy, Diana’s aunt, who, in her confusion lets go of a long held secret. There’s pink haired Chloe, who turns out to hold a creative intelligence that saves the day.
The novel explores ageing; the loss of memory; the vagaries of romance, and the complexity of political affiliations. That this is achieved with such charm and humour is to McAuley’s credit.
“People are always trying to put me in a genre, and I am not,” agrees Roisin on the phone from Reading, in Berkshire. “I write about love and relationships, and I go for happy endings so I am labelled ‘romance’. But I want to put in politics, social commentary and a bit of comedy.
“I would like to rescue romance, in terms of the big handsome tradition of the 19TH Century novel as written by George Eliot, Charlotte Bronte or Jane Austen.”
That Roisin should write with such range is not so surprising when you look at her biography. Brought up in Belfast, She was at primary school, and university with Bernadette Devlin- now McAllister. After a stint as BBC Northern Ireland’s first woman newsreader, Roisin became the first Northern Ireland correspondent for the Cork Examiner.
“That was an amazing time,” she says. “It was 1974 the time of the Ulster Worker’s Council Strike. There were bombs and flying glass in the streets. You’d be in a telephone box with riots going on and bricks hurtling past dictating copy over the phone.”
After a spell in the Examiner’s London office Roisin returned to the BBC to work on the current affairs programme Spotlight. She has since worked, mostly freelance, on a series of documentary programmes including Panorama, as a reporter, and sometimes reporter producer director.
Roisin covered the Falklands war from Argentina. She covered the hostage situation in Beirut, and remembers being the only reporter in Hezbollah controlled West Beirut listening to reports of the Berlin Wall falling.
“I didn’t feel unsafe,” she says. “I knew it was pretty certain they would not kidnap a woman, and I was a citizen of Ireland. I was careful to route my calls to London through my brother in Dublin.
“Besides, journalists do that sort of thing all the time,” she says. “You are not in there thinking about the risks, and what was happening to people around you was infinitely worse.”
Later Roisin did her chemical weapons training in Porton Down.
“We put on a gas mask and ran around through CF gas, and I thought, ‘I’ve been in CF gas without a mask.’ She went to Palestine during the first Gulf war at the time they were firing scuds, but the war ended 2 days later. But she did get a coveted dinner interview with Yasser Arafat. “It was amazing to meet him,” she says. “He is such an iconic figure.”
Life, today, could not be more different for Roisin. She married a lawyer, Richard, in her forties, and now lives with him in Reading. She spends her days playing golf; playing bridge and writing her novels.
Does she miss the excitement of her former life?
“Of course I do. I really miss it,” she says. “But I didn’t really leave the job. The job left me.” It bothers Roisin that the wealth of current affairs programme the BBC used to air, has given way to the rash of celebrity and reality TV.
“The world is full of journalists doing brave and astonishing things, but I think we are in danger of losing that in this world of Big Brother. I would love to do, say, a documentary about what young people think in Iran, but if they were to commission a programme, they would insist on a celebrity presenter. The day of the reporter has gone.”
Writing about politics in her novels is some consolation. She enjoyed writing the scenes from Belfast, but was nervous that the element of ‘the troubles,’ might deter her potential readership.
“I know, from making documentaries how programmes from Northern Ireland can have people reaching for the off switch, but we gave the book to a couple of book groups and the younger people loved that element. It was history to them and they were really interested in the politics.
“I wanted to show, too, that Irish politics are not simple; that people’s views are conflicted.” This was once true in England, too. And Roisin shows this through exploring Henry’s Catholic ancestry. “I wanted people to have a sense that there was a time in England when people like Henry would have been regarded as enemies of the State.”
30 years ago, Roisin would have laughed if she’d been told she would one day write novels. Yet now, it feels like her natural form.
“That surprises me. Writing is hard work. It can be tedious. I work at every sentence and hope my writing is like a pane of glass that you can see the story through. You should never have to read a sentence again.
“I am obsessed by detail. If I say ‘it takes so many minutes to get from A to Z,’ I have done it. I am always checking details. I cannot continue to write until I have done so.”
Roisin hopes that her book will satisfy readers. And will give them a better understanding of the way in which human beings react.
“I wanted to make them all human. Henry has been in the army. He has made no secret of it but he has done, perhaps, not particularly laudable things. Louise’s brother was in the IRA, yet her father was in the army.
What is Roisin’s overriding message?
“Having been in a lot of places that have been torn apart, it seems to me, that what motivates people; what burns them up, and is a bigger factor than hunger, greed, power or sex, is a sense of fair play.
“The child in the playground saying, ‘it is not fair,’ is a cry that echoes everywhere. When people see that things are not fair they burn. And if they feel things are fair they can take a great deal.
“Northern Ireland is now a fair society. That is the biggest change there. The most extraordinary thing about Northern Ireland, it seems to me, is that after all those things that happened, we have got there. I have to pinch myself sometimes. It took thirty years but we got there!”
Finding Home by Roisin McAuley is published by Sphere Books at 11.99 euro.
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Five Tasks a Day for Mental Wellbeing.
Click on the Link to read article.
http://www.independent.ie/health/case-studies/how-to-be-happy-1592072.html
http://www.independent.ie/health/case-studies/how-to-be-happy-1592072.html
Christian Ministry. Father Gerry Reynolds.
Father Gerry Reynolds.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in Reality. January 2009.
Father Gerry Reynolds is a happy man. Always interested in ecumenicalism, he feels that he is in the place God intended him to be. For the past 25 years he has lived in Clonard Monastery in Belfast; and his work there has had a profound effect on the community. Along with Father Reid he is a legend; commanding enormous respect.
“I am so grateful,” he says. “I have a sense of the hand of God guiding me and helping me along the way.”
Born in Limerick, Fr Reynolds always wanted to be a priest.
“In those days people would encourage you,” he says. “People would say, ‘good lad; that’s a good thing to do.’ My dad died when I was 6, but my mother had a big influence on my life, as well as the local parish. Two of my uncles were Redemptorist Priests.”
Liking the missionary aspect of the redemptorists, Fr Reynolds took his vows in 1953. He studied for a BA in Galway, then when back to the seminary to finish his theology.
“I was ordained in 1960, and completed my preparation for missionary work in 1961 or 62.”
A special working in the publications followed.
“I was looking after the promoters and managing the financial side,” he says. “I wasn’t involved in the editorial, though I did, at one time edit a few issues of ‘Reality.’ I was then sent to work in the communications centre; and I became involved in the Religious Press Association; and in the Legion of Mary.”
In 1975 Fr Reynolds was assigned to be the leader of the redemptorist community in Limerick.
“This was a difficult time,” he says. “A time of transition in community life. After the Vatican Council all the religious councils had to rethink their meaning and reshape their constitutions and statutes. It was a time of questioning the meaning of the priesthood as well.
“I think I was a failure as a leader of the community,” he says. “After three years I was not selected for reappointment, and that was a great blow to my self esteem. They were painful, difficult years, but looking back that time was formative for me. I am now able to cope with failure.”
His next position, in Athenry was much happier.
“I began to feel young again.” There are two events, in particular, that father Reynolds remembers from that time. The first was the excitement on hearing that Pope John Paul 2nd had been appointed; the second was the Papal visit to Ireland in 1979.
“That was an extraordinary moment; the Bishop of Rome coming to Ireland. It was almost like St Patrick coming back. It was one great Parish Mission, and the renewal of faith and of confidence in all the people.”
When he was asked to go to Clonard Monastery in Belfast in 1983; and encouraged to reach out to the people of the other churches he was very happy to be assigned. Because his belief in ecumenism had grown over the years.
“When I was ordained, Pope John 23rd was reaching out to all the churches. One of the things he set for the council was the restoration of the Unity of Christians. Being ordained then, marked my life in that way.”
Fr Reynolds was also influenced by Charles de Foucauld; the French priest who died in the Sahara in 1916.
“He lived among the Touareg people and saw himself called to be the Universal brother at the heart of the Christian vocation. A group of priests in France; inspired by his experience, began a fraternity of priests called Jesus Caritas Fraternity. That has been a big influence in my life.
“Jesus caritas holds that the heart of faith is the love of God revealed to us in Jesus, and the witnessing of him in our lives. Charles de Foucauld wanted to proclaim the gospel with the whole of his life. Contact with Jesus Caritas has led me into the heart of the Redemptorist way of life.”
There was one challenge in Belfast.
“It was ‘how do you stop the killing?’ I asked Father Reid, what we could do to stop the violence. And he said to me, ‘the only hope is dialogue with one another; because dialogue opens the space for the spirit of God to work in human history.’
“People would say, ‘there will never be peace here.’ But we worked out of a great hope based on knowing that God’s purpose is hope for the Christian Church to be truly united in real and fully visible communication. So that in every place we can celebrate the Eucharist together. One church, in many churches.
“In preparing for unity we have a project here called Unity Pilgrims. The pilgrims are fully part of our own parish, and they go to Sunday mass; but as well as that they go to a Presbyterian, Methodist or Church of Ireland Church.
“The people have changed since peace,” he says. “But there is always work to be done. Every generation is like a continent to be won for Christ. That missionary task remains.”
A WEEK IN Fr REYNOLD’S LIFE.
Sunday. I went to Aghagallon Parish to say two mass twice as a supply priest. I had my dinner, and watched the All Ireland hurling match. Then I walked along the Lough Shore.
Monday and Tuesday. 7.00 mass. We had two days of meetings for the beginning of the new Triennium. On Tuesday we had Eucharist together, as a community. We had a celebration dinner of Pork.
Wednesday. 12.20. Mass in the community chapel. I worked on a booklet for an initiative enhancing faith and church. It’s for all Catholics in the parishes to motivate and equip them for the ecumenical church. I visited a sick confer. In the afternoon we had a meeting of Cornerstone Community; an inter church community.
Thursday. 7.0 mass. We had 4 sections of the Novena. I officiated at the wedding of a girl I confirmed in the Lady of Peace Church. She had been Presbyterian. I visited a couple whose wedding I did in Edinburgh 5 years ago. I had helped her through baptism and confirmation. They have three children now.
Friday. 7.00 mass. I visited the confer in the nursing home and worked on my project.
“Each day we have morning, and evening prayer in the church. In my time off I go for walks or visit friends. I love to read poetry; particularly Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, or Manley Hopkins. I love the old psalms too.
“Brother Francis, a Redemptorist said to me once, ‘God calls is in significant ways at different times of our lives. In youth it’s to obedience; to listen and respond to his call. In middle age he calls us to fidelity, to stay the course and to begin again, and in the latter stages he calls us to abandonment. Really that ‘here I am Lord, use me, go with the flow.’ I am in that third stage now.”
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in Reality. January 2009.
Father Gerry Reynolds is a happy man. Always interested in ecumenicalism, he feels that he is in the place God intended him to be. For the past 25 years he has lived in Clonard Monastery in Belfast; and his work there has had a profound effect on the community. Along with Father Reid he is a legend; commanding enormous respect.
“I am so grateful,” he says. “I have a sense of the hand of God guiding me and helping me along the way.”
Born in Limerick, Fr Reynolds always wanted to be a priest.
“In those days people would encourage you,” he says. “People would say, ‘good lad; that’s a good thing to do.’ My dad died when I was 6, but my mother had a big influence on my life, as well as the local parish. Two of my uncles were Redemptorist Priests.”
Liking the missionary aspect of the redemptorists, Fr Reynolds took his vows in 1953. He studied for a BA in Galway, then when back to the seminary to finish his theology.
“I was ordained in 1960, and completed my preparation for missionary work in 1961 or 62.”
A special working in the publications followed.
“I was looking after the promoters and managing the financial side,” he says. “I wasn’t involved in the editorial, though I did, at one time edit a few issues of ‘Reality.’ I was then sent to work in the communications centre; and I became involved in the Religious Press Association; and in the Legion of Mary.”
In 1975 Fr Reynolds was assigned to be the leader of the redemptorist community in Limerick.
“This was a difficult time,” he says. “A time of transition in community life. After the Vatican Council all the religious councils had to rethink their meaning and reshape their constitutions and statutes. It was a time of questioning the meaning of the priesthood as well.
“I think I was a failure as a leader of the community,” he says. “After three years I was not selected for reappointment, and that was a great blow to my self esteem. They were painful, difficult years, but looking back that time was formative for me. I am now able to cope with failure.”
His next position, in Athenry was much happier.
“I began to feel young again.” There are two events, in particular, that father Reynolds remembers from that time. The first was the excitement on hearing that Pope John Paul 2nd had been appointed; the second was the Papal visit to Ireland in 1979.
“That was an extraordinary moment; the Bishop of Rome coming to Ireland. It was almost like St Patrick coming back. It was one great Parish Mission, and the renewal of faith and of confidence in all the people.”
When he was asked to go to Clonard Monastery in Belfast in 1983; and encouraged to reach out to the people of the other churches he was very happy to be assigned. Because his belief in ecumenism had grown over the years.
“When I was ordained, Pope John 23rd was reaching out to all the churches. One of the things he set for the council was the restoration of the Unity of Christians. Being ordained then, marked my life in that way.”
Fr Reynolds was also influenced by Charles de Foucauld; the French priest who died in the Sahara in 1916.
“He lived among the Touareg people and saw himself called to be the Universal brother at the heart of the Christian vocation. A group of priests in France; inspired by his experience, began a fraternity of priests called Jesus Caritas Fraternity. That has been a big influence in my life.
“Jesus caritas holds that the heart of faith is the love of God revealed to us in Jesus, and the witnessing of him in our lives. Charles de Foucauld wanted to proclaim the gospel with the whole of his life. Contact with Jesus Caritas has led me into the heart of the Redemptorist way of life.”
There was one challenge in Belfast.
“It was ‘how do you stop the killing?’ I asked Father Reid, what we could do to stop the violence. And he said to me, ‘the only hope is dialogue with one another; because dialogue opens the space for the spirit of God to work in human history.’
“People would say, ‘there will never be peace here.’ But we worked out of a great hope based on knowing that God’s purpose is hope for the Christian Church to be truly united in real and fully visible communication. So that in every place we can celebrate the Eucharist together. One church, in many churches.
“In preparing for unity we have a project here called Unity Pilgrims. The pilgrims are fully part of our own parish, and they go to Sunday mass; but as well as that they go to a Presbyterian, Methodist or Church of Ireland Church.
“The people have changed since peace,” he says. “But there is always work to be done. Every generation is like a continent to be won for Christ. That missionary task remains.”
A WEEK IN Fr REYNOLD’S LIFE.
Sunday. I went to Aghagallon Parish to say two mass twice as a supply priest. I had my dinner, and watched the All Ireland hurling match. Then I walked along the Lough Shore.
Monday and Tuesday. 7.00 mass. We had two days of meetings for the beginning of the new Triennium. On Tuesday we had Eucharist together, as a community. We had a celebration dinner of Pork.
Wednesday. 12.20. Mass in the community chapel. I worked on a booklet for an initiative enhancing faith and church. It’s for all Catholics in the parishes to motivate and equip them for the ecumenical church. I visited a sick confer. In the afternoon we had a meeting of Cornerstone Community; an inter church community.
Thursday. 7.0 mass. We had 4 sections of the Novena. I officiated at the wedding of a girl I confirmed in the Lady of Peace Church. She had been Presbyterian. I visited a couple whose wedding I did in Edinburgh 5 years ago. I had helped her through baptism and confirmation. They have three children now.
Friday. 7.00 mass. I visited the confer in the nursing home and worked on my project.
“Each day we have morning, and evening prayer in the church. In my time off I go for walks or visit friends. I love to read poetry; particularly Kavanagh, Seamus Heaney, or Manley Hopkins. I love the old psalms too.
“Brother Francis, a Redemptorist said to me once, ‘God calls is in significant ways at different times of our lives. In youth it’s to obedience; to listen and respond to his call. In middle age he calls us to fidelity, to stay the course and to begin again, and in the latter stages he calls us to abandonment. Really that ‘here I am Lord, use me, go with the flow.’ I am in that third stage now.”
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Author Interview. Robert Fannin.
Robert Fannin
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner. January 17th 2009.
When Robert Fannin was 24 years old, he was sailing in the Arctic when the yacht capsized. Hanging upside down, as the water flowed in, Robert surmised that he had just two minutes left to live.
“And the thought annoying me more than anything else, was that I had never written a book,” he tells me, on the phone from Bristol.
Writing seems a strange aspiration for a rebel, who, since being expelled from St Paul’s College, Raheny at 15, had worked as a fisherman, and had dabbled with drugs. But the reason for his expulsion lends a clue.
“I wrote a poem in answer to a question, ‘why we should love God.’ It was called, ‘The Prostitute,’ and I thought it was spiritual. But the chap beside me laughed and I was thrown out the next day.”
Robert’s father, the cartoonist Bob Fannin, was a keen yachtsman in Howth Harbour. And Robert admits that becoming a fisherman in that same harbour was a way of embarrassing his family. And so began his chequered career.
Now 54, Robert has worked as a cartoonist; an illustrator, a radio presenter and a sign writer. He’s been a salesman, a steam cleaner washing wax off new cars; he was a T shirt designer, a curator, a rubbish collector and a chauffeur.
And he spent years sailing; both delivering ships worldwide, and working a skipper on Charter Yachts. All this, though, was a transference from the job he really wanted; which was that of writer.
“I was always writing,” he says. “I wrote articles for The Guardian and the Times. I wrote for various yachting magazines, but I always wanted to write fiction. I’d tried drafts of novels but nothing stuck.”
Fannin wrote a successful play though. ‘In a Different Light’ toured New England and had a three week run off Broadway, before coming to the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1996.
During this time, Robert had an on off relationship with Denise; living with her and her small son in Bristol from 1997, when their daughter, Aoife was born. They married, but have now split. It was Denise’s pregnancy that gave the spark of an idea for Robert’s debut novel.
“I wanted to write down those experiences I had at 15 and 16 when I was arrogant and ignorant,” he says, “I wanted my child to be able to read about it when they were a teenager. And perhaps I wanted to cleanse myself before I became a father.”
It had been a wild time.
“I earned a load of money as a fisherman, and I started getting into a lot of trouble. There was an awful lot of drinking and motorbike using.”
And drugs?
“I wanted to try LSD,” he says. “I’d listened to Jimmie Hendrix and the Beatles, but it was impossible to get your hands on it. So in 1972 I went to Amsterdam where heroin cured me of LSD. A friend and I messed around a lot, but a friend died and we had to return to Dublin where there was no heroin to be had.
“Gradually, I realised that I’d come close to something very destructive and in the process my survival instincts had capsized. It takes a short time to get over the physical effects of drugs, but many years to un-capsize yourself.”
Before long, Robert realised that these early experiences would transfer well into a novel.
“So I employed tactics I had learned in play writing. I realised there was something there.
“Six years ago I sent the manuscript to a London agent who had worked with me on a BBC radio play. She liked the novel. She thought it was lovely, but felt it should not all be set in 1972. She said, ‘I think you should bring the novel into the modern day,’ but I felt I could not do that.
“As we were discussing it on the phone, my now ex wife and I were waiting for a babysitter so that we could go to marriage counselling. We’d been going for about two years. That thought gave me a flash of inspiration.
“I said, ‘what if I write in two time zones, and make my hero, Sean a marriage guidance counsellor? We could link back to the earlier story through a client.’ The agent thought that was brilliant.
“I sent a new version, and she said, ‘that’s good, but do another rewrite.’ The manuscript went backwards and forwards for four years. Meanwhile I was the main breadwinner for my wife Denise and the two children. I was doing sign writing, mural painting and paint effects. I’d do anything.”
When the agent, finally, rejected the manuscript Robert was devastated.
“She said, ‘you have done all you can, but I won’t take it on.’ She said it did not fall into any genre. I’d worked so hard on it, and now, I thought, it would never be published. I didn’t know what to do.”
He told a friend one day, as they ate their lunch in an architect’s garden. And he suggested that Robert apply to university.
“I hadn’t been in education for 37 years, but I applied that night, on line. I was accepted by the University of the West of England in Bristol. I’m now in my second year.”
Whist he was there, Robert was diagnosed with Dyslexia. It was found he was functioning way above average in some aspects of learning; way below in others. Knowing this has made sense of so much.
“I read very slowly and it takes time for me to write; it has to be clear who is saying what. I’d always thought I must be stupid. So being diagnosed was a relief. And I’ve been showered with help.”
Last year Robert sent his manuscript to agent Faith O’Grady. She accepted it, and brokered a two book deal for Robert with Hachette Books.
“When I got that phone call I was numb. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I had to keep taking deep breaths.”
Classified as ‘accessible literature,’ Shooting the Moon is a wonderful read. Part romance, and part adventure, the novel has some clever plot twists. It’s page turning, but the writing shines. Fannin is strong on characterisation, and the nuances of relationships. What would he like readers to take from it?
“That it is like life. That the process of falling in love when you are young; and that more soured and jaded hopefulness of later encounters rings true. That love never dies, it just changes in form.”
Writing for Robert is a struggle. He rewrote the novel around 28 times.
“The most disappointing part of writing, is when you have done two or three hours work and you think, ‘I have got it.’ You have a glow like being in love, but you go back to it the next morning, reread it, and realise that it is rubbish.”
Now that Robert has written his book, what is his ambition?
“To sail alone around the world,” he says. “And to write a really, really brilliant book.”
Shooting the Moon by Robert Fannin is published by Hachette Books at 12.99 euro.
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner. January 17th 2009.
When Robert Fannin was 24 years old, he was sailing in the Arctic when the yacht capsized. Hanging upside down, as the water flowed in, Robert surmised that he had just two minutes left to live.
“And the thought annoying me more than anything else, was that I had never written a book,” he tells me, on the phone from Bristol.
Writing seems a strange aspiration for a rebel, who, since being expelled from St Paul’s College, Raheny at 15, had worked as a fisherman, and had dabbled with drugs. But the reason for his expulsion lends a clue.
“I wrote a poem in answer to a question, ‘why we should love God.’ It was called, ‘The Prostitute,’ and I thought it was spiritual. But the chap beside me laughed and I was thrown out the next day.”
Robert’s father, the cartoonist Bob Fannin, was a keen yachtsman in Howth Harbour. And Robert admits that becoming a fisherman in that same harbour was a way of embarrassing his family. And so began his chequered career.
Now 54, Robert has worked as a cartoonist; an illustrator, a radio presenter and a sign writer. He’s been a salesman, a steam cleaner washing wax off new cars; he was a T shirt designer, a curator, a rubbish collector and a chauffeur.
And he spent years sailing; both delivering ships worldwide, and working a skipper on Charter Yachts. All this, though, was a transference from the job he really wanted; which was that of writer.
“I was always writing,” he says. “I wrote articles for The Guardian and the Times. I wrote for various yachting magazines, but I always wanted to write fiction. I’d tried drafts of novels but nothing stuck.”
Fannin wrote a successful play though. ‘In a Different Light’ toured New England and had a three week run off Broadway, before coming to the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1996.
During this time, Robert had an on off relationship with Denise; living with her and her small son in Bristol from 1997, when their daughter, Aoife was born. They married, but have now split. It was Denise’s pregnancy that gave the spark of an idea for Robert’s debut novel.
“I wanted to write down those experiences I had at 15 and 16 when I was arrogant and ignorant,” he says, “I wanted my child to be able to read about it when they were a teenager. And perhaps I wanted to cleanse myself before I became a father.”
It had been a wild time.
“I earned a load of money as a fisherman, and I started getting into a lot of trouble. There was an awful lot of drinking and motorbike using.”
And drugs?
“I wanted to try LSD,” he says. “I’d listened to Jimmie Hendrix and the Beatles, but it was impossible to get your hands on it. So in 1972 I went to Amsterdam where heroin cured me of LSD. A friend and I messed around a lot, but a friend died and we had to return to Dublin where there was no heroin to be had.
“Gradually, I realised that I’d come close to something very destructive and in the process my survival instincts had capsized. It takes a short time to get over the physical effects of drugs, but many years to un-capsize yourself.”
Before long, Robert realised that these early experiences would transfer well into a novel.
“So I employed tactics I had learned in play writing. I realised there was something there.
“Six years ago I sent the manuscript to a London agent who had worked with me on a BBC radio play. She liked the novel. She thought it was lovely, but felt it should not all be set in 1972. She said, ‘I think you should bring the novel into the modern day,’ but I felt I could not do that.
“As we were discussing it on the phone, my now ex wife and I were waiting for a babysitter so that we could go to marriage counselling. We’d been going for about two years. That thought gave me a flash of inspiration.
“I said, ‘what if I write in two time zones, and make my hero, Sean a marriage guidance counsellor? We could link back to the earlier story through a client.’ The agent thought that was brilliant.
“I sent a new version, and she said, ‘that’s good, but do another rewrite.’ The manuscript went backwards and forwards for four years. Meanwhile I was the main breadwinner for my wife Denise and the two children. I was doing sign writing, mural painting and paint effects. I’d do anything.”
When the agent, finally, rejected the manuscript Robert was devastated.
“She said, ‘you have done all you can, but I won’t take it on.’ She said it did not fall into any genre. I’d worked so hard on it, and now, I thought, it would never be published. I didn’t know what to do.”
He told a friend one day, as they ate their lunch in an architect’s garden. And he suggested that Robert apply to university.
“I hadn’t been in education for 37 years, but I applied that night, on line. I was accepted by the University of the West of England in Bristol. I’m now in my second year.”
Whist he was there, Robert was diagnosed with Dyslexia. It was found he was functioning way above average in some aspects of learning; way below in others. Knowing this has made sense of so much.
“I read very slowly and it takes time for me to write; it has to be clear who is saying what. I’d always thought I must be stupid. So being diagnosed was a relief. And I’ve been showered with help.”
Last year Robert sent his manuscript to agent Faith O’Grady. She accepted it, and brokered a two book deal for Robert with Hachette Books.
“When I got that phone call I was numb. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I had to keep taking deep breaths.”
Classified as ‘accessible literature,’ Shooting the Moon is a wonderful read. Part romance, and part adventure, the novel has some clever plot twists. It’s page turning, but the writing shines. Fannin is strong on characterisation, and the nuances of relationships. What would he like readers to take from it?
“That it is like life. That the process of falling in love when you are young; and that more soured and jaded hopefulness of later encounters rings true. That love never dies, it just changes in form.”
Writing for Robert is a struggle. He rewrote the novel around 28 times.
“The most disappointing part of writing, is when you have done two or three hours work and you think, ‘I have got it.’ You have a glow like being in love, but you go back to it the next morning, reread it, and realise that it is rubbish.”
Now that Robert has written his book, what is his ambition?
“To sail alone around the world,” he says. “And to write a really, really brilliant book.”
Shooting the Moon by Robert Fannin is published by Hachette Books at 12.99 euro.
© Sue Leonard. 2009.
Author INterview. Sarah Webb.
Sarah Webb.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner. January 2009.
Sarah Webb’s latest novel is a delight. Anything for Love is a romantic comedy. A fun read filled with zany characters who will warm your heart. It’s the perfect antidote for this gloom filled January.
Novel writing, for most writers, is a full time job. Sarah Webb, though, is not like most writers. A born organiser, she gets writers together at dinners and events. She organises reader’s days; she’s on the committee of Irish PEN.
Sarah has a blog that she updates every day. She’s a journalist who reviews children’s books. As children’s book consultant to Dubray Books, she’s written a guide called ‘Mad About Books.’ She’s a mum of three.
And if all that wasn’t enough, she’s found the time to write for teenagers too. Amy Green Agony Queen comes out with Walker Books next month. (February.) So just how does she find the time?
“I just love it all,” laughs Sarah when we meet at the spacious house in Dun Laoghaire she shares with her partner Ben. “I’m sociable and writing is a lonely business. I love all the things that I do.”
We’re sitting in Sarah’s farmhouse style kitchen. It’s a huge room, but warm, with its yellow walls. It’s eerily quiet too. That’s because Amy Rose 5, and 2 year old Jago are out with Sarah’s ‘lovely Slovakian au pair.’
“She takes them for a walk in the mornings so that I can get some peace and quiet,” says Sarah. “And Sam, who is 14, is still in bed,” she adds, laughing.
Sarah looks stylish in black trousers and a blue jumper. That’s because she’s just returned from a funeral.
“I don’t normally look smart when I’m writing,” she says.
Now 39, Sarah’s life is settled. But it wasn’t always that way. Sarah was a single mum to Sam; struggling to work as a children’s buyer; a job that involved a difficult commute.
“I had post natal depression for eight months too,” says Sarah, remembering those fraught years. But she rallied. She wrote three recipe books for children, and then sold her first novel to Poolbeg.
“Poolbeg published the first three; and they were also published by Pan Macmillan in the UK,” says Sarah. “And the other five books have been with Pan Macmillan, and with Harper Collins in the USA.”
Those early experiences, though, have informed Sarah’s writing. Anything for Love features the eccentric world of the charity Queens. And though the exploits of Maud Hamilton O’Connor and her colleagues on the fund raising committee for a maternity hospital make hilarious reading, the novel is not without issues.
The Heroine, Alice, is a single mum with low expectations. The book features post natal depression; premature babies; Bebo bullying and the abuse of immigrants. Tackling all this, Sarah feels, is really important.
“I haven’t written about single mums since my first book, Three Times a Lady, and there are a lot of women in that situation,” she says. “I wanted to show that they can find love as well.
“I became aware of the abuse of immigrants through one of my best friends, Katarina, who started off as my au pair. She would tell me stories about young girls and older women who were minding children for 12 hours a day; and doing night shifts too.
“I think Maud would have had a strange relationship with her housekeeper. And I liked the fact, that by the end of the book, she has accepted a Polish lad as an equal with her precious little son. That, to me, was important.”
Sarah adored creating the character of Maud. And she is careful to explain that she is not based on her mum; Melissa, who was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate for her tireless work for The National Children’s Hospital and the Rotunda.
“I purposely did not talk to anyone in the charity field, because I did not want anyone to think the character was based on them.,” she says. “But I have come across a lot of women in charity work who were involved in modelling or fashion. I’ve seen a lot of the Ladies who Lunch.”
The relationship between Alice and Grace, the bossy sister she lives with is lovingly drawn. There’s affection there, and loyalty, but tension and irritation too.
“I have two sisters and I am the eldest,” says Sarah. “I have some of Grace’s attributes. I am bossy and a control freak. I like to tell my sisters what to do.
“My youngest sister thinks she is Alice, and she does have that caring attitude. But I never base a character on one person.”
How did Sarah’s teen book come into being?
“Two years ago I visited Sam’s class in school to talk about writing,” she says. “He was in fifth year. I was talking to the girls and they said, ‘Our mums have read your books. Why can’t you write for our age?’
“I told them I’d give it a go. And they got excited and wanted to be in it. They gave me loads of ideas and told me all about Bebo, and what was cool and what was not.
“I went back into them and said I had an idea about a teen who was an agony queen and they loved it. They gave me more ideas. So I wrote it in three months. It was a delight. I showed it to my editor, and she said, ‘wow. This is just what we want.’ She spurred me on to get it finished.”
Sarah sent the book to her agent. It went to auction, and was bought in a pre-emptive bid for a six figure sum. She’s been commissioned to write six books; one a year, and the film rights are under negotiation.
With all that to celebrate, you’d think life couldn’t get any better. But in July last year it did. Ben and Sarah were in Castle Townsend, Co Cork, with the children, and they went swimming in the sea.
“We both love swimming,” explains Sarah. “We were wearing our wetsuits and we were quite far out to sea. It was a beautiful day. We’d left the kids at the house with a friend. And I proposed to Ben.
“He said ‘yes’ at once,” laughs Sarah. “And he wanted to tread water and talk. But he is a stronger swimmer than I am and after I’d proposed I got tired. I had to hang onto him.”
They’ll marry in June 2010, because there’s already a big family wedding planned for this June.
It’s appropriate, though, that Sarah should have this dream ending. Because she likes to give a happy ending to the characters in her books.
“They’re essential in Romantic Comedies,” she says. “Though sometimes my endings are just hopeful.”
Sarah adores the feedback she gets from her readers. What would she like them to say about Anything for Love?
“First of all I hope people enjoy it, but also that they can relate to one of the characters,” she says. “It could be Grace or Alice. I hope the characters seem real to them.”
Anything for Love by Sarah Webb is published by Macmillan at 14.99 euro.
Copyright. Sue Leonard. 2009.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner. January 2009.
Sarah Webb’s latest novel is a delight. Anything for Love is a romantic comedy. A fun read filled with zany characters who will warm your heart. It’s the perfect antidote for this gloom filled January.
Novel writing, for most writers, is a full time job. Sarah Webb, though, is not like most writers. A born organiser, she gets writers together at dinners and events. She organises reader’s days; she’s on the committee of Irish PEN.
Sarah has a blog that she updates every day. She’s a journalist who reviews children’s books. As children’s book consultant to Dubray Books, she’s written a guide called ‘Mad About Books.’ She’s a mum of three.
And if all that wasn’t enough, she’s found the time to write for teenagers too. Amy Green Agony Queen comes out with Walker Books next month. (February.) So just how does she find the time?
“I just love it all,” laughs Sarah when we meet at the spacious house in Dun Laoghaire she shares with her partner Ben. “I’m sociable and writing is a lonely business. I love all the things that I do.”
We’re sitting in Sarah’s farmhouse style kitchen. It’s a huge room, but warm, with its yellow walls. It’s eerily quiet too. That’s because Amy Rose 5, and 2 year old Jago are out with Sarah’s ‘lovely Slovakian au pair.’
“She takes them for a walk in the mornings so that I can get some peace and quiet,” says Sarah. “And Sam, who is 14, is still in bed,” she adds, laughing.
Sarah looks stylish in black trousers and a blue jumper. That’s because she’s just returned from a funeral.
“I don’t normally look smart when I’m writing,” she says.
Now 39, Sarah’s life is settled. But it wasn’t always that way. Sarah was a single mum to Sam; struggling to work as a children’s buyer; a job that involved a difficult commute.
“I had post natal depression for eight months too,” says Sarah, remembering those fraught years. But she rallied. She wrote three recipe books for children, and then sold her first novel to Poolbeg.
“Poolbeg published the first three; and they were also published by Pan Macmillan in the UK,” says Sarah. “And the other five books have been with Pan Macmillan, and with Harper Collins in the USA.”
Those early experiences, though, have informed Sarah’s writing. Anything for Love features the eccentric world of the charity Queens. And though the exploits of Maud Hamilton O’Connor and her colleagues on the fund raising committee for a maternity hospital make hilarious reading, the novel is not without issues.
The Heroine, Alice, is a single mum with low expectations. The book features post natal depression; premature babies; Bebo bullying and the abuse of immigrants. Tackling all this, Sarah feels, is really important.
“I haven’t written about single mums since my first book, Three Times a Lady, and there are a lot of women in that situation,” she says. “I wanted to show that they can find love as well.
“I became aware of the abuse of immigrants through one of my best friends, Katarina, who started off as my au pair. She would tell me stories about young girls and older women who were minding children for 12 hours a day; and doing night shifts too.
“I think Maud would have had a strange relationship with her housekeeper. And I liked the fact, that by the end of the book, she has accepted a Polish lad as an equal with her precious little son. That, to me, was important.”
Sarah adored creating the character of Maud. And she is careful to explain that she is not based on her mum; Melissa, who was recently awarded an Honorary Doctorate for her tireless work for The National Children’s Hospital and the Rotunda.
“I purposely did not talk to anyone in the charity field, because I did not want anyone to think the character was based on them.,” she says. “But I have come across a lot of women in charity work who were involved in modelling or fashion. I’ve seen a lot of the Ladies who Lunch.”
The relationship between Alice and Grace, the bossy sister she lives with is lovingly drawn. There’s affection there, and loyalty, but tension and irritation too.
“I have two sisters and I am the eldest,” says Sarah. “I have some of Grace’s attributes. I am bossy and a control freak. I like to tell my sisters what to do.
“My youngest sister thinks she is Alice, and she does have that caring attitude. But I never base a character on one person.”
How did Sarah’s teen book come into being?
“Two years ago I visited Sam’s class in school to talk about writing,” she says. “He was in fifth year. I was talking to the girls and they said, ‘Our mums have read your books. Why can’t you write for our age?’
“I told them I’d give it a go. And they got excited and wanted to be in it. They gave me loads of ideas and told me all about Bebo, and what was cool and what was not.
“I went back into them and said I had an idea about a teen who was an agony queen and they loved it. They gave me more ideas. So I wrote it in three months. It was a delight. I showed it to my editor, and she said, ‘wow. This is just what we want.’ She spurred me on to get it finished.”
Sarah sent the book to her agent. It went to auction, and was bought in a pre-emptive bid for a six figure sum. She’s been commissioned to write six books; one a year, and the film rights are under negotiation.
With all that to celebrate, you’d think life couldn’t get any better. But in July last year it did. Ben and Sarah were in Castle Townsend, Co Cork, with the children, and they went swimming in the sea.
“We both love swimming,” explains Sarah. “We were wearing our wetsuits and we were quite far out to sea. It was a beautiful day. We’d left the kids at the house with a friend. And I proposed to Ben.
“He said ‘yes’ at once,” laughs Sarah. “And he wanted to tread water and talk. But he is a stronger swimmer than I am and after I’d proposed I got tired. I had to hang onto him.”
They’ll marry in June 2010, because there’s already a big family wedding planned for this June.
It’s appropriate, though, that Sarah should have this dream ending. Because she likes to give a happy ending to the characters in her books.
“They’re essential in Romantic Comedies,” she says. “Though sometimes my endings are just hopeful.”
Sarah adores the feedback she gets from her readers. What would she like them to say about Anything for Love?
“First of all I hope people enjoy it, but also that they can relate to one of the characters,” she says. “It could be Grace or Alice. I hope the characters seem real to them.”
Anything for Love by Sarah Webb is published by Macmillan at 14.99 euro.
Copyright. Sue Leonard. 2009.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)