Showing posts with label Celebrity Interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celebrity Interview. Show all posts
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Writer, John Green.
Author John Green on Writing and cancer.
By Sue Leonard.
Published in FACEUP Magazine, (for Teenagers.) April, 2013
John Green’s books for teenagers are so popular, that they’ve topped the New York Times bestsellers lists. And, the online video projects he performs with his brother – as the Vlogbrothers – are world famous. No wonder his recent event in Ireland was packed out.
But when, in his latest teen novel he chose to write about cancer, he realised he was taking a huge risk. So why did he do it?
“Before I became a writer, I was a student minister, and I spent five months working in a children’s hospital,” he says. “I spent a lot of time with teenagers who had cancer, and with their families. The experience left me sad, even traumatised.
“My struggle, working in the hospital was that I couldn’t forget the things I saw and heard. I remember one teenager saying she felt like a grenade. She felt she would damage everyone around her when she died. That was unbearably sad.”
John felt he was unsuitable for the work of a minister, and he left, and started writing for magazines. He tried, hard, to write a book based on his experiences in the hospital, but it wouldn’t gel. So he gave up on it, and wrote other books for teenagers. These became New York Times best sellers, and won numerous awards.
And one day, at a Harry Potter conference, John met a 14 year old girl called Esther.
“She read my books, and came up to talk to me,” he says. “She was smart and funny and we struck up a friendship. She had terminal cancer, and needed oxygen with her all the time. We kept in touch over the years, mostly on the internet, and I got to know her family too. She died at 16.”
Esther made John see how he could write his book.
“She taught me that a short life can also be a full life and a rich life,” he says. “Esther, obviously, wasn’t happy to have cancer. She didn’t enjoy the pain. But she was happy to be alive. She was loved and able to feel love. That gave me the hope I needed to pull me into the story. And to realise it would work much better if I wrote it from the teenagers point of view, rather from my own.”
Another event that helped him was the birth of his son, Henry, who is now 3.
“After his birth I realised that as long as either of us are alive, I will be his father and he will be my son. I realised that, in that sense, love does survive death. That was a great gift to me.”
The novel, The Fault in our Stars, is simply amazing. Through the wonderful teenagers, it makes you see cancer in a whole new way. And it isn’t too sentimental. It’s about love, and friendship, and family, as well as about cancer. It is sad in parts; but it’s also hilariously funny, thought provoking, tender and romantic.
“When people are sick they are still human,” says John. “They are still funny and joyous and sad and sarcastic and angry. I wanted to show all of that.”
Sowhat’s the Novel about?
Ever since Hazel was diagnosed with cancer, she’s known she’s going to die. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be rewritten. They become friends, then more than friends. If you want to know what happens to them, you’ll have to read it!
Wherever Hazel goes, her oxygen goes too. And people stare at her.
“A teen with visible cancer can never have a moment of feeling normal,” says John. “In public people pity her, or wonder why she is sick, or if she is dying. That, I think, must be really hard.”
How does he hope readers will react?
“I hope the book makes them laugh, but I guess it will make them cry as well. I want them to get a frame of reference so that they can ask all those difficult questions about life and death. I tried to be as honest as possible, even though the characters are made up.”
The Fault in Our Stars is now available in Ireland. But it was published in America last year. And it has proved even more successful than John’s earlier books. Does he have tips for teenagers who want to become writers?
John Green’s Tips for Aspiring Writers.
• You have to practise. Nobody picks up a violin and expects to play in Carnegie Hall. It takes a lot of practise to become a good writer.
• Take pleasure in learning to become better. And don’t mind when you have bad days. Just keep going.
• Read a lot. Reading is the best apprenticeship for a writer. It’s how we learn how people use text to create ideas in other people’s minds.
• Remember, that while not many people write novels as a full time job, there are many, many people who write books, newspapers and magazines. Writing is an achievable ambition.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is published by Penguin Books.
To view John and his brother Hank as the Vlogbrothers, youtube.com/vlogbrothers
© Sue Leonard. 2013.
By Sue Leonard.
Published in FACEUP Magazine, (for Teenagers.) April, 2013
John Green’s books for teenagers are so popular, that they’ve topped the New York Times bestsellers lists. And, the online video projects he performs with his brother – as the Vlogbrothers – are world famous. No wonder his recent event in Ireland was packed out.
But when, in his latest teen novel he chose to write about cancer, he realised he was taking a huge risk. So why did he do it?
“Before I became a writer, I was a student minister, and I spent five months working in a children’s hospital,” he says. “I spent a lot of time with teenagers who had cancer, and with their families. The experience left me sad, even traumatised.
“My struggle, working in the hospital was that I couldn’t forget the things I saw and heard. I remember one teenager saying she felt like a grenade. She felt she would damage everyone around her when she died. That was unbearably sad.”
John felt he was unsuitable for the work of a minister, and he left, and started writing for magazines. He tried, hard, to write a book based on his experiences in the hospital, but it wouldn’t gel. So he gave up on it, and wrote other books for teenagers. These became New York Times best sellers, and won numerous awards.
And one day, at a Harry Potter conference, John met a 14 year old girl called Esther.
“She read my books, and came up to talk to me,” he says. “She was smart and funny and we struck up a friendship. She had terminal cancer, and needed oxygen with her all the time. We kept in touch over the years, mostly on the internet, and I got to know her family too. She died at 16.”
Esther made John see how he could write his book.
“She taught me that a short life can also be a full life and a rich life,” he says. “Esther, obviously, wasn’t happy to have cancer. She didn’t enjoy the pain. But she was happy to be alive. She was loved and able to feel love. That gave me the hope I needed to pull me into the story. And to realise it would work much better if I wrote it from the teenagers point of view, rather from my own.”
Another event that helped him was the birth of his son, Henry, who is now 3.
“After his birth I realised that as long as either of us are alive, I will be his father and he will be my son. I realised that, in that sense, love does survive death. That was a great gift to me.”
The novel, The Fault in our Stars, is simply amazing. Through the wonderful teenagers, it makes you see cancer in a whole new way. And it isn’t too sentimental. It’s about love, and friendship, and family, as well as about cancer. It is sad in parts; but it’s also hilariously funny, thought provoking, tender and romantic.
“When people are sick they are still human,” says John. “They are still funny and joyous and sad and sarcastic and angry. I wanted to show all of that.”
Sowhat’s the Novel about?
Ever since Hazel was diagnosed with cancer, she’s known she’s going to die. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be rewritten. They become friends, then more than friends. If you want to know what happens to them, you’ll have to read it!
Wherever Hazel goes, her oxygen goes too. And people stare at her.
“A teen with visible cancer can never have a moment of feeling normal,” says John. “In public people pity her, or wonder why she is sick, or if she is dying. That, I think, must be really hard.”
How does he hope readers will react?
“I hope the book makes them laugh, but I guess it will make them cry as well. I want them to get a frame of reference so that they can ask all those difficult questions about life and death. I tried to be as honest as possible, even though the characters are made up.”
The Fault in Our Stars is now available in Ireland. But it was published in America last year. And it has proved even more successful than John’s earlier books. Does he have tips for teenagers who want to become writers?
John Green’s Tips for Aspiring Writers.
• You have to practise. Nobody picks up a violin and expects to play in Carnegie Hall. It takes a lot of practise to become a good writer.
• Take pleasure in learning to become better. And don’t mind when you have bad days. Just keep going.
• Read a lot. Reading is the best apprenticeship for a writer. It’s how we learn how people use text to create ideas in other people’s minds.
• Remember, that while not many people write novels as a full time job, there are many, many people who write books, newspapers and magazines. Writing is an achievable ambition.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is published by Penguin Books.
To view John and his brother Hank as the Vlogbrothers, youtube.com/vlogbrothers
© Sue Leonard. 2013.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Bill O'Herlihy
Bill O’HerlihyInterviewed by Sue Leonard
Published in Reality Magazine. February, 2013
Bill O’Herlihy is best known as the anchor man of soccer at RTE. But that is only the latest stage of his eventful career. His moves from print journalism, through TV current affairs, on to sport; alongside a thriving career in PR seems to have slotted into place effortlessly. So much so, that O’Herlihy sometimes wonders if the Lord had a hand in it.
At 74 he has a strong faith.
“I was born into a house of love,” he says. There were six children, and we weren’t well off. My father had a respectable job in local government, but it wasn’t well paid. Life was a struggle, but a struggle with a smile.
“It was a very Catholic household. We said the rosary every night, and under no circumstances were we permitted to miss mass. But that would have been the tradition of the day amongst our friends.”
Religion came into discipline, too. If the children has misbehaved, to get the truth, they’d be marched in front of the picture of the sacred heart.
“Religion was so strong, that you would never tell a lie before the sacred heart.”
O’Herlihy’s father lived out his faith.
“He was a good Christian man. Every Sunday, come rain or shine, he collected money for the sick and the poor. He did not feel this was sacrificial; he believed he was doing good work and he did it. My father was the first person in Cork to introduce Meals on Wheels; in Lough Parish, though he didn’t get any credit for it. He was an example to us all.”
Once a pioneer, O’Herlihy joined the Cork Examiner at 16, but was never part of the drinking culture. It wasn’t until he married, at 32, that he broke his pledge. And that was by mistake.
“Hilary drank Vodka and bitter lemon, and I drank bitter lemon. I sipped hers, by mistake, and once the pledge was broken, it was broken. I had no intention of restarting. That week, I remember, I drank Sangria.”
He went into TV by mistake too; starting with RTE as a Regional reporter. Then he joined Current Affairs, heading up a top ratings programme called 7 Days. But that’s when his career hit a glitch.
“We produced a programme on illegal money lending in Dublin, using hidden microphones and cameras. That caused a terrible furore. There was a tribunal, which we lost, and that finished me.
“The decision, though, was political,” he says. “The real issue was another programme we’d shown, presenting a survey on what would happen if there was a referendum on getting a first past the post vote. Fianna Fail had called for this, and our perception was that if passed, Fianna Fail would get 109 seats our of a total of 144.
“The government of the day thought RTE should be an arm of government, and that survey enraged them. And the consequence was that Current Affairs was neutered for a generation. This was 1971.”
His career since then, has been relatively trouble free. It took him a while to find his feet in PR, but the company has prospered, and he feels happily at home presenting sport. His home life is happy too.
“I’ve tried to replicate what my parents gave us; and I think ours is a very loving house. I have two gorgeous girls, Jill and Sally, and Hilary is a smashing wife. We have four grandchildren; Martha and Bill in Jill’s case, and Jack and Isla in Sally’s. They’re lovely kids.
“We have what I call a three line whip. They come every Sunday for dinner; the lot of them. I think it’s very important to maintain your relationship with the grandchildren and their parents, and not let us drift apart.”
Hilary is a member of the Church of Ireland. And Bill has huge respect for her faith.
“When we married it was, very much, Ne Temere. I always feel, when you are in a mixed marriage, and the children are Catholic, the non-catholic loses out on an awful lot. I go to mass every Sunday, and so do the children. Hilary goes to church every Sunday.
“I will go to the Church of Ireland service with her on Christmas day. We always went to her church on feast days, as a family. And on those days I would not go to mass as well. That would be disrespectful.”
It would be wrong to suggest that O’Herlihy’s life has been entirely happy. His father died of a heart attack in his seventies, and he lost his mother to a nasty form of cancer. Both his sisters died, young and quickly, from various forms of cancer. But it wouldn’t occur to him to blame the Lord.
He has had his own health problems, too. He had a heart attack, followed by a brush with cancer. And he is utterly convinced that God’s intervention saved him both times.
“I had a meeting at RTE for the Los Angeles Olympics, which should have gone on all morning, but finished early. So I was able to go on to a lunch meeting with a company called Parc, who had a hospital in Bagdad. The medical director was over to talk to the College of Surgeons.
“I walked in and he didn’t like the look of me at all. He said, ‘are you ok?’ I said I had a slight pain in my chest and down my arm, and he picked up the phone and rang the cardiologist John Horgan. He said, ‘I’m bringing down a person who is starting a heart attack.’ That evening, I should have been going to London. If I’d gone, I’m told, I would have died.
“The other time I wasn’t feeling well, or looking well, and I was in bad humour. My three ladies said, ‘you have to have an MOT. They forced me to the Beacon Clinic, and within a week I had an operation for colon cancer. They took out a tumour the size of a lemon, and a foot and a half of intestine, and nothing has happened since. These things don’t happen by accident. I am certain the Lord intervened.”
We’ll Leave it There so, by Bill O’Herlihy with Ewan MacKenna, is published by Paperweight.
© Sue Leonard. 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
Bonnie Langford.
Bonnie Langford.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard
Published in The Irish Examiner on 3rd January, 2013.
Bonnie Langford is coming to Dublin. Star of numerous musicals, and one time child star, she’s appearing at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, in ‘9 to 5,’ a musical comedy based on the 1980 film starring Dolly Parton. Parton also wrote the lyrics.
Langford is excited to be bringing the show here, for its Irish premiere.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “Audiences seem to embrace it. In England, we’ve had a lot of women having a girl’s night out, and they love the show. We’ve also had a few men,” she says. “And some of them were dressed as Dolly Parton.”
The show is set in an office the seventies.
“And that gives it a nice period flavour,” she says. “There’s a chauvinist boss who likes to keep his girls at bay; it highlights the glass ceiling that is there.”
Langford is playing the part of Roz Keith
“She’s the office manager, and the only character in the show who likes the boss. She has a thing for him – but its unrequited. He doesn’t see it.”
Langford has never met Dolly Parton; but she’s admires her hugely.
“She’s this great person who everybody loves. She’s creative and a great business woman, worth an estimated 400 million dollars. She’s created a persona, and embraces who she is. She brings joy to people.”
Bonnie Langford has had an extraordinary varied career since she appeared on Opportunity Knocks, aged six. A child megastar – appearing in films, on stage, and on TV – she has since performed in comedy, and has starred in numerous hit musicals from Cats to Chicago. She played Mel in two series of Dr Who, and has served her term in pantomime. What genre feels most comfortable?
“I like paying the mortgage,” she says, with a husky laugh. “I love all the different elements, and that there is always something new. You think, gosh, I should know it all by now, but you are constantly learning. And you have to keep your performance fresh and alive. I love performing with different people. It’s like being part of another family.”
Langford first appeared on the stage aged four months. Her mother owned a dance school, so performing became second nature to her daughter.
“I performed The Good Ship Lollipop on Opportunity Knocks, because I was playing Shirley Temple for our end of year show – a Hollywood Tribute. I found being on TV really comfortable. I loved it. I couldn’t understand why the people around me were suffering with nerves.
“I was a dull child thought,” she says. “If I was asked to do something in a professional environment, I’d get up and do it; but I wouldn’t dance in the living room for my aunties. I’d refuse and hide in the toilet.”
From the start, Langford watched other actresses, to learn her craft. At eight, she played the part of Baby June in Gypsy, alongside Angela Lansbury on Broadway.
“I watched her give the most incredible performance. I watched her as an actor, and a person, and she is exemplary. She has this wonderful charisma and aura on and off the stage. I’ve always had the greatest admiration for her, and she remains a friend.”
There’s a lot of misinformation about Langford on the web. Click on her ‘first TV appearance’ on YouTube, and she’s a parody in pink frills.
“That was not my first performance,” she says. “That clip is me on Russell Harty when I was eight years old. The frilly dress was my costume from Gypsy, and that was my dance routine, ‘Let me Entertain You.’ I was promoting it at the time.”
Such mistakes irritate Langford. As does the perception that her own persona mirrored the parts she played – including that of the lisping Violet Elizabeth in the TV series, Just William.
“I had become this persona I didn’t really want to be. I had always played the role, and I knew what was expected of me, but I got to a point that I didn’t want to be the person I was supposed to be. I wasn’t comfortable.
“I went through a period in my twenties when my work life balance was out of kilter, and I wasn’t happy. I was embarrassed about my persona and was searching for different things. I was feeling vulnerable.”
Would she have preferred a normal childhood?
“Not at all,” she says. “I was useless at sport. I still am. If someone throws me a ball I shut my eyes, so I created the childhood I wanted.”
If she was so bad at sport – how come she performed in the first series of Dancing on Ice?
“I’d never been to an ice rink before. I hadn’t a clue, and that’s why I loved it. All my life I’d been professional in everything I did. In skating I had permission to make mistakes. It was ‘tell me what to do because I don’t know how,’ and that was refreshing.”
Originally the reserve for the show, Langford participated when another contender broke her wrist. Avoiding that fate – though she did cut her head open twice, and still lives with a few war wounds, Langford made it to the final, and the following year toured with Torvill and Dean.
Living between New York and Surrey, Langford has a stepdaughter, and a daughter, Biana, 12, with her husband actor, Paul Grunert. Does she act?
“She’s had little dabbles. It’s somewhere in the blood. All I can do is support and encourage. The only thing I have said to her, is, ‘if you do it, you must do it well.’ She doesn’t have that freedom of anonymity.”
Of all Langford’s roles, the murderess, Roxie Hart in Chicago is, perhaps, her favourite.
“Chicago was a great show to be part of,” she says. “I dabble in it in America still, sometimes. And I did it in London. I also loved being in ‘Cats.’ And in Spamalot – which I’ve just done, touring Britain. That was a fabulous company and I made lifelong friends.”
At 48, has she experienced any ageism?
“Not really. Except when I do this energetic routine in the middle of ‘9 to 5,’ the other actors go, ‘oh my God – and you’re 48!’ And I go, ‘well I’m not getting my bus pass.’ At the moment I feel positive about ageing. It’s too easy to moan.”
Life, right now, is frenetic. Langford had her first St Stephen’s day off in years – but she spent it watching her husband playing in Kiss Me Kate.
“We’ve been in other ends of the country. We cope with it, but it’s becoming difficult. I’m getting sick of touring. I’m leaving ‘9 to 5,’ at the end of February, and going home to be more of an attentive mother. I have some work lined up – but I’m not going to tell you what it is.”
Does she have any regrets?
“No. There are things that didn’t work out the way I planned, but you are meant to learn from them, so they don’t come and hit you in the face again. You get on with it, and keep learning and listening.”
9 to 5 comes to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre on 21st January.
© Sue Leonard. 2013.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard
Published in The Irish Examiner on 3rd January, 2013.
Bonnie Langford is coming to Dublin. Star of numerous musicals, and one time child star, she’s appearing at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, in ‘9 to 5,’ a musical comedy based on the 1980 film starring Dolly Parton. Parton also wrote the lyrics.
Langford is excited to be bringing the show here, for its Irish premiere.
“It’s a lot of fun,” she says. “Audiences seem to embrace it. In England, we’ve had a lot of women having a girl’s night out, and they love the show. We’ve also had a few men,” she says. “And some of them were dressed as Dolly Parton.”
The show is set in an office the seventies.
“And that gives it a nice period flavour,” she says. “There’s a chauvinist boss who likes to keep his girls at bay; it highlights the glass ceiling that is there.”
Langford is playing the part of Roz Keith
“She’s the office manager, and the only character in the show who likes the boss. She has a thing for him – but its unrequited. He doesn’t see it.”
Langford has never met Dolly Parton; but she’s admires her hugely.
“She’s this great person who everybody loves. She’s creative and a great business woman, worth an estimated 400 million dollars. She’s created a persona, and embraces who she is. She brings joy to people.”
Bonnie Langford has had an extraordinary varied career since she appeared on Opportunity Knocks, aged six. A child megastar – appearing in films, on stage, and on TV – she has since performed in comedy, and has starred in numerous hit musicals from Cats to Chicago. She played Mel in two series of Dr Who, and has served her term in pantomime. What genre feels most comfortable?
“I like paying the mortgage,” she says, with a husky laugh. “I love all the different elements, and that there is always something new. You think, gosh, I should know it all by now, but you are constantly learning. And you have to keep your performance fresh and alive. I love performing with different people. It’s like being part of another family.”
Langford first appeared on the stage aged four months. Her mother owned a dance school, so performing became second nature to her daughter.
“I performed The Good Ship Lollipop on Opportunity Knocks, because I was playing Shirley Temple for our end of year show – a Hollywood Tribute. I found being on TV really comfortable. I loved it. I couldn’t understand why the people around me were suffering with nerves.
“I was a dull child thought,” she says. “If I was asked to do something in a professional environment, I’d get up and do it; but I wouldn’t dance in the living room for my aunties. I’d refuse and hide in the toilet.”
From the start, Langford watched other actresses, to learn her craft. At eight, she played the part of Baby June in Gypsy, alongside Angela Lansbury on Broadway.
“I watched her give the most incredible performance. I watched her as an actor, and a person, and she is exemplary. She has this wonderful charisma and aura on and off the stage. I’ve always had the greatest admiration for her, and she remains a friend.”
There’s a lot of misinformation about Langford on the web. Click on her ‘first TV appearance’ on YouTube, and she’s a parody in pink frills.
“That was not my first performance,” she says. “That clip is me on Russell Harty when I was eight years old. The frilly dress was my costume from Gypsy, and that was my dance routine, ‘Let me Entertain You.’ I was promoting it at the time.”
Such mistakes irritate Langford. As does the perception that her own persona mirrored the parts she played – including that of the lisping Violet Elizabeth in the TV series, Just William.
“I had become this persona I didn’t really want to be. I had always played the role, and I knew what was expected of me, but I got to a point that I didn’t want to be the person I was supposed to be. I wasn’t comfortable.
“I went through a period in my twenties when my work life balance was out of kilter, and I wasn’t happy. I was embarrassed about my persona and was searching for different things. I was feeling vulnerable.”
Would she have preferred a normal childhood?
“Not at all,” she says. “I was useless at sport. I still am. If someone throws me a ball I shut my eyes, so I created the childhood I wanted.”
If she was so bad at sport – how come she performed in the first series of Dancing on Ice?
“I’d never been to an ice rink before. I hadn’t a clue, and that’s why I loved it. All my life I’d been professional in everything I did. In skating I had permission to make mistakes. It was ‘tell me what to do because I don’t know how,’ and that was refreshing.”
Originally the reserve for the show, Langford participated when another contender broke her wrist. Avoiding that fate – though she did cut her head open twice, and still lives with a few war wounds, Langford made it to the final, and the following year toured with Torvill and Dean.
Living between New York and Surrey, Langford has a stepdaughter, and a daughter, Biana, 12, with her husband actor, Paul Grunert. Does she act?
“She’s had little dabbles. It’s somewhere in the blood. All I can do is support and encourage. The only thing I have said to her, is, ‘if you do it, you must do it well.’ She doesn’t have that freedom of anonymity.”
Of all Langford’s roles, the murderess, Roxie Hart in Chicago is, perhaps, her favourite.
“Chicago was a great show to be part of,” she says. “I dabble in it in America still, sometimes. And I did it in London. I also loved being in ‘Cats.’ And in Spamalot – which I’ve just done, touring Britain. That was a fabulous company and I made lifelong friends.”
At 48, has she experienced any ageism?
“Not really. Except when I do this energetic routine in the middle of ‘9 to 5,’ the other actors go, ‘oh my God – and you’re 48!’ And I go, ‘well I’m not getting my bus pass.’ At the moment I feel positive about ageing. It’s too easy to moan.”
Life, right now, is frenetic. Langford had her first St Stephen’s day off in years – but she spent it watching her husband playing in Kiss Me Kate.
“We’ve been in other ends of the country. We cope with it, but it’s becoming difficult. I’m getting sick of touring. I’m leaving ‘9 to 5,’ at the end of February, and going home to be more of an attentive mother. I have some work lined up – but I’m not going to tell you what it is.”
Does she have any regrets?
“No. There are things that didn’t work out the way I planned, but you are meant to learn from them, so they don’t come and hit you in the face again. You get on with it, and keep learning and listening.”
9 to 5 comes to the Bord Gais Energy Theatre on 21st January.
© Sue Leonard. 2013.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Katie Piper.
Katie Piper
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in Woman’s Way Magazine, week ending, 30th July, 2012.
When, in 2008, Katie Piper’s boyfriend, Daniel Lynch, got an accomplice to throw industrial strength acid in her face, having already raped her, he assumed he’d ruined her life. And for a long time, the 24 year old model and TV presenter would have, absolutely agreed.
She lost half her face, as the skin melted away down to the bone. She was blind in one eye. She couldn’t eat, having swallowed some of the acid, and her pain was beyond unendurable. At her lowest, she wrote a note to her mum, saying, ‘kill me.’
Just four years on, though, Katie has turned her life around. Hundreds of operations later, she’s at the stage where her hospital visits can be fitted into her life, rather than the other way round.
“It’s more sporadic than ever,” she says, when we talk in Dublin. “There’s a bit of reconstruction left on my eye and nose, and I have a few oesophagus dilations left to help me eat, but that’s it!”
Struggling to recover, Katie found inordinate strength. In 2009, her TV documentary My Beautiful Face, inspired millions, and Katie has since dedicated her life to helping other ‘survivors’ of burns and scars.
Three years ago she’s set up a Charity, The Katie Piper Foundation, and it’s growing all the time.
“We’ve just expanded a programme of workshops. We give confidence seminars and camouflage make up seminars, and we give out grants for hair transplants, laser treatments, and medical tattooing. We’ve set up a support mentoring scheme too.”
People often stop Katie in the street to tell her how much she has inspired them. She receives hundreds of letters. And when she decided to write a self-help book, based on everything she has learned through her ordeal, she started gathering all the letters and notes together.
“And what surprised me most, is that only a quarter of the people who contacted me had burns or disfigurements. The rest were people with a broad section of problems. I didn’t think those people would identify with me, but I realised it was the none visible scars; like my emotions, like the loss of identity.
“I heard from lots of men who had lost their jobs. That role of provider had changed. The whole family dynamic was different, and, watching the programme they could see that my role as big sister had changed. It’s hard for anyone to adjust to that.”
People ask Katie where her strength came from. And, writing the book, she felt a need to be honest, and to chart all the bad times, as well as the good.
“I’ve got this burning passion to say to people, ‘from the outside I know it looks awful, but there is a way forward. There is a way out of illness and bereavement, but it’s not a smooth ride. And it’s not one you, necessarily, find an end to.”
Things Get Better is an amazing book. Using instances of her own experience, interspersed with the stories of others, Katie gives the reader inspirational tips, exercises, and advice about how to get from Rock bottom, back to a kind of normality. A hugely positive read, it shows how people should think of themselves as a survivor of a situation, rather than a victim. But how did Katie recover?
“I had professional help,” she says. “I went to a psychotherapist for two years. Nobody should ever be embarrassed about that. And I learned to let my friends and family help me. Because for a while, I kept pushing them away.
“I had an amazing doctor, and surgeon. And I also found faith. That gave me hope. Ultimately, though, it’s down to personal responsibility. You can have all this support, but it’s only you that can get you better. It’s easy to wallow and say, ‘why me,’ but you need to move forward.”
Life, today, is good. Katie loves having her independence. She hopes, sometime, to find a loving relationship, but meanwhile, she sees, and appreciates her family like never before.
“I love just being with them,” she says.
She’s recently signed a contract with Channel Four to make more TV programs. So in spite of everything, the media career she aspired to at 24 is now on course.
“There’s not a day goes by when I don’t think, someone wanted to destroy me and everything I had, and now I’ve rebuilt it beyond what they ever imagined. I feel victorious. Someone can scratch the surface, but they can’t destroy the soul.”
Things Get Better by Katie Piper is published by Quercus at €12.99.
www.katiepiperfoundation.org.uk
© Sue Leonard. 2012.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Author/Actor John Lynch
John Lynch
Interviewed by Sue Leonard
Published in The Irish Examiner 19th June. 2010
John Lynch is instantly recognisable. He ambles into Brooke’s Hotel in Dublin wearing a black jacket and leather cap, and I imagine I’m in the company of a hard republican. During his prolific film career Lynch has portrayed Bobby Sands, Paul Hill, and in Mo, Gerry Adams.
Parts are still pouring in for the 48 year old from Armagh. He recently returned from Morocco, where he portrayed the Angel Gabriel in The Nativity. He has also just published his second novel. Why, when he’s so busy, would he bother?
“With acting, frustration sets in,” he says, holding eye contact. “As someone said to me a few weeks ago, the only power you have as an actor is ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Once you have said ‘yes,’ to something you’ve said ‘yes’ to everything. To the director, the script, the crew – that’s it. So I think writing is a way of trying to empower myself.
“When I was at drama school studying Shakespeare and Chekhov , I was taking language apart, trying to work out how it came to be. And how to translate that into a physical moment. I thought, some day, I will try and create a total world instead of just driving one character’s story.”
Many actors have turned to the pen; but none as effectively as John Lynch. His debut, Torn Water, was an astonishing assured study of a troubled teenage boy making sense of his world. Falling out of Heaven is even more powerful.
It’s a dark book centring round alcoholism, but the writing is so lyrical; the characters so believable, and the observations so astute, that by the end the reader feels uplifted. This is the best book I have read all year.
Gabriel O’Rourke has a loving wife, and a beautiful young son. He excels at teaching, and has a supportive family. So why does he let drink break him, until he becomes homeless and psychotic?
Falling out of Heaven shows Gabriel’s journey through a secure psychiatric unit to ultimate redemption. In that process, he has to confront his past, and face the demons that led him to act in such a reprehensible way. All this impacts on those close to him. Lynch achieves this with flashback, flitting backwards and forwards in time.
Lynch is a recovering alcoholic. He hasn’t touched a drink in eleven years, but is the story autobiographical?
“Not massively. The childhood is not my childhood, the father not my father and the drinking not my drinking. Someone said, ‘we all fall out of heaven but some of us remember the fall.’ I wanted to capture that feeling.
“I do know about alcoholism; it plays brain tricks. You feel withdrawn, you don’t trust anybody, you go missing, and you have huge melancholia. It’s a constant war to keep going, to keep upright and to keep functioning.
“I didn’t fall as far as Gabriel. I rang my doctor and asked him what I could do. He suggested a treatment centre in London. I met a lot of people there who had a lot of problems, and some of their stories were fascinating. For the first time in my life I was actually listening. I used some of their stories for Gabriel, and mixed them with my own.”
The book isn’t just about alcoholism. It shows the continuing tension in the North too. There’s a wonderful anecdote where a shopkeeper outwits a gang of tribal teens.
Does Lynch consider himself a writer first, or an actor?
“In my head I’m a writer, always. Even when I’m acting, I’ll be thinking, how can I put that into words? How can I relate that emotionally, and how describe it? Defining an inner life – that is a form of writing.”
Lynch recounts a scene in a movie he made in London, where he has to beat a young actor, almost to death. He knocked the actor to the floor, then, in a stunt, pounded a body bag which was covered in blood bags.
“I got into a rhythm of energy and violence. I decided to head butt the body bag. That hadn’t been set up, and it looks really sick on the tape. But the character goes into a frenzy. He’s effectively had a breakdown. By the end I was shaking. And when I washed off all the fake blood, I found this massive blood blister on my head.
“I find it easy to jump into a character I’m writing too. I make a quick decision. I think what would underpin this guy? I based Gabriel as a teacher on my own teachers in St Calman’s. I remembered how they carried themselves and how they behaved. It was important, to me, to show Gabriel as a teacher. It showed that he was, basically, a good guy.”
Does Lynch miss drinking?
“It gave me time,” he says. “I was still working as an actor, but there is a lot of time in-between. I thought, what do I do now? I’ve all this activity in my head. That’s why, and when, I started to write.”
Surely, though, drink is part of what actors do?
“Certainly there’s a great romance between drinking and acting. I remember when I started acting there were all these stories about Richard Harris and all these great drinkers. That time has gone. Bad behaviour is tolerated less.
“There does become a time in the evening, for example, at the wrap party in London, a moment where you just know it’s time to go. It’s when a lot of people have left their inhibitions behind.
“And yes, I am sometimes tempted to drink. When the first copy of thi
s book arrived I felt like celebrating. But immediately an image of drinking appears. I don’t know where drink will take me. I become a version of myself I don’t like. I become unreliable. I go missing. I get depressed, and I can’t stop.”
Falling out of Heaven by John Lynch is published by Fourth Estate at 13.99 euro.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard
Published in The Irish Examiner 19th June. 2010
John Lynch is instantly recognisable. He ambles into Brooke’s Hotel in Dublin wearing a black jacket and leather cap, and I imagine I’m in the company of a hard republican. During his prolific film career Lynch has portrayed Bobby Sands, Paul Hill, and in Mo, Gerry Adams.
Parts are still pouring in for the 48 year old from Armagh. He recently returned from Morocco, where he portrayed the Angel Gabriel in The Nativity. He has also just published his second novel. Why, when he’s so busy, would he bother?
“With acting, frustration sets in,” he says, holding eye contact. “As someone said to me a few weeks ago, the only power you have as an actor is ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Once you have said ‘yes,’ to something you’ve said ‘yes’ to everything. To the director, the script, the crew – that’s it. So I think writing is a way of trying to empower myself.
“When I was at drama school studying Shakespeare and Chekhov , I was taking language apart, trying to work out how it came to be. And how to translate that into a physical moment. I thought, some day, I will try and create a total world instead of just driving one character’s story.”
Many actors have turned to the pen; but none as effectively as John Lynch. His debut, Torn Water, was an astonishing assured study of a troubled teenage boy making sense of his world. Falling out of Heaven is even more powerful.
It’s a dark book centring round alcoholism, but the writing is so lyrical; the characters so believable, and the observations so astute, that by the end the reader feels uplifted. This is the best book I have read all year.
Gabriel O’Rourke has a loving wife, and a beautiful young son. He excels at teaching, and has a supportive family. So why does he let drink break him, until he becomes homeless and psychotic?
Falling out of Heaven shows Gabriel’s journey through a secure psychiatric unit to ultimate redemption. In that process, he has to confront his past, and face the demons that led him to act in such a reprehensible way. All this impacts on those close to him. Lynch achieves this with flashback, flitting backwards and forwards in time.
Lynch is a recovering alcoholic. He hasn’t touched a drink in eleven years, but is the story autobiographical?
“Not massively. The childhood is not my childhood, the father not my father and the drinking not my drinking. Someone said, ‘we all fall out of heaven but some of us remember the fall.’ I wanted to capture that feeling.
“I do know about alcoholism; it plays brain tricks. You feel withdrawn, you don’t trust anybody, you go missing, and you have huge melancholia. It’s a constant war to keep going, to keep upright and to keep functioning.
“I didn’t fall as far as Gabriel. I rang my doctor and asked him what I could do. He suggested a treatment centre in London. I met a lot of people there who had a lot of problems, and some of their stories were fascinating. For the first time in my life I was actually listening. I used some of their stories for Gabriel, and mixed them with my own.”
The book isn’t just about alcoholism. It shows the continuing tension in the North too. There’s a wonderful anecdote where a shopkeeper outwits a gang of tribal teens.
Does Lynch consider himself a writer first, or an actor?
“In my head I’m a writer, always. Even when I’m acting, I’ll be thinking, how can I put that into words? How can I relate that emotionally, and how describe it? Defining an inner life – that is a form of writing.”
Lynch recounts a scene in a movie he made in London, where he has to beat a young actor, almost to death. He knocked the actor to the floor, then, in a stunt, pounded a body bag which was covered in blood bags.
“I got into a rhythm of energy and violence. I decided to head butt the body bag. That hadn’t been set up, and it looks really sick on the tape. But the character goes into a frenzy. He’s effectively had a breakdown. By the end I was shaking. And when I washed off all the fake blood, I found this massive blood blister on my head.
“I find it easy to jump into a character I’m writing too. I make a quick decision. I think what would underpin this guy? I based Gabriel as a teacher on my own teachers in St Calman’s. I remembered how they carried themselves and how they behaved. It was important, to me, to show Gabriel as a teacher. It showed that he was, basically, a good guy.”
Does Lynch miss drinking?
“It gave me time,” he says. “I was still working as an actor, but there is a lot of time in-between. I thought, what do I do now? I’ve all this activity in my head. That’s why, and when, I started to write.”
Surely, though, drink is part of what actors do?
“Certainly there’s a great romance between drinking and acting. I remember when I started acting there were all these stories about Richard Harris and all these great drinkers. That time has gone. Bad behaviour is tolerated less.
“There does become a time in the evening, for example, at the wrap party in London, a moment where you just know it’s time to go. It’s when a lot of people have left their inhibitions behind.
“And yes, I am sometimes tempted to drink. When the first copy of thi
s book arrived I felt like celebrating. But immediately an image of drinking appears. I don’t know where drink will take me. I become a version of myself I don’t like. I become unreliable. I go missing. I get depressed, and I can’t stop.”
Falling out of Heaven by John Lynch is published by Fourth Estate at 13.99 euro.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Sally Bee's Heart Attacks
I survived three heart attacks in one week -- but now life is better than ever
TV's Sally Bee tells Sue Leonard about living with a rare disorder
Tuesday March 02 2010
Sally Bee positively glows with health. At 42, the TV presenter and mum of three looks years younger. She doesn't smoke and is a walking advertisement for her new book of healthy recipes. It's impossible to believe that, just five years ago, Sally suffered a series of such severe heart attacks that her doctors left her to die.
It started at a friend's birthday party in her home town Stratford-on-Avon.
"I was holding Lela, my then nine-month-old baby, when I felt this sense of impending doom. I just knew something was terribly wrong. Twenty seconds later, the pain hit. Then I was on the floor having a heart attack."
The doctor in the A&E, though, couldn't believe it.
"There were 'changes' in my ECG, but he didn't think, 'heart attack.' They think there has to be a reason; that you have to be overweight or a smoker, or have a history of heart disease in the family. They said I had reflux, and sent me home with medicine for indigestion."
Three days later, the pain hit again. Given morphine, she was left alone and unable to breathe. Then a nurse, reading the heart monitor, shouted for the doctors.
'I had three cardiologists standing around saying, 'this is telling us that you are having a heart attack, but we still don't believe it'.
"The next day they performed an angiogram, and they saw the main artery that feeds my heart literally fall apart. They'd never seen that before, and they didn't expect me to live. They left the room, and told my husband to go in. They thought I would die there and then."
Sally, it turned out, was born with SCAD -- Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection -- that could have killed her at any time.
To the doctors' amazement, Sally survived. She stayed in hospital for two weeks, then was sent home on 'critical recovery'. And, as the mum of three under-fives, unable to do anything, that was tough.
"We had to get a nanny, and my husband took a year off work. I couldn't be on my own with the children for one second, because if one of them fell, I couldn't get up to help.
"I worried all the time. I'd think each breath was my last. A few times I thought I had died, and was a ghost.
"But, gradually, I began to get better. I started walking a little every day, but I was always scared.
"After a year, I'd got used to the idea of living. I had my year anniversary and was on a high. Then the cardiologist said, 'I think you have a problem'. He thought I had an aneurysm in my aorta. He said we need to scan this, and if I had, there were two options. He could operate -- there was a 40pc chance of survival -- or leave it, meaning it could blow and I could die any time.
"I knew if they found an aneurysm they'd operate at once, and I could die. So I prepared for the date. I had wardrobes built; I got the decorators in; I bought the children's clothes for a year, and I put all my girlfriends on standby. I cried every day.
"Then the night before, I thought, if I'm going to die let it happen. I thought, I can't live like this anymore. I can't live with the fear of dying.
"I'll never forget the MRI scan. They told me it would take 40 minutes, and I knew it had taken an hour and 20 minutes. I was getting fired up, sure I had an aneurysm. I was thinking, if you doctors do your bit, I'll do mine. I will really fight.
"This Chinese doctor said there was no aneurysm. I kissed him, and decided that I wouldn't live with fear anymore.
"That was my tipping point. I remember saying to my kids, 'right, on your bikes. We're going round the block'. I began to push forward, and I've not stopped since."
From the start, Sally had watched her diet with care. Her body taught her how.
"If I had a cheese sandwich for lunch, I'd sleep for 14 hours. If I ate fish and fruit I'd have a bit of energy. After six months I had an Indian takeaway. The monosodium glutamate sent my heart into abnormal rhythm and I was back in hospital."
Sally experimented with healthy heart recipes. And at the same time she was counselling heart patients sourced by her own heart nurses. She helped them with their diet too, and she decided to write a recipe book, The Secret Ingredient.
With a TV programme planned for the autumn, Sally is flying high. She's not cured, and never will be. But she's not worrying about dying.
"I've got a voice. People need to be educated after a heart attack, and I can help them with my recipes.
"I'm having an adventure and I'm loving it. Life isn't worse than before. In many ways it's better."
The Secret Ingredient by Sally Bee is published by Harper Collins. For more information; www.sally-bee.com
- Sue Leonard
Irish Independent
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Jackie Collins.
Jackie Collins.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner, 8th November, 2008.
When I was asked if I’d like to have lunch with Jackie Collins, my first thought, was ‘what will I wear?’ My second was a fear that she’d be a true diva; and that the conversation would dry before desert.
I wasn’t the only one feeling nervous that Saturday; the waitress who showed us to the lush gold seated alcove in The Shelbourne Hotel’s Saddle room, was in such a dither, that she assured us the setting was ‘romantic.’
“We don’t need romantic,” drawled Jackie.
Jackie looks great. I’d been told not to ask her age; and you’d never guess she was born in 1937. Her dark hair is thick and lustrous; her skin plump. She doesn’t have that stretched, expressionless mask that comes from too much ‘work’; her smile reaches her eyes; and her sultry laugh sounds genuine. I like her.
As we examine the menu, and decide on ‘gin and tonic salmon with Champ,’ we gossip. We discuss men; and particularly the two leads in Jackie’s new Hollywood blockbuster, Married Lovers. I loved the loyal, put upon Ryan. She’s in love with Don; a chat show host who is rather trickier.
“I’m bringing him back,” she tells me. “There is, definitely, going to be a sequel.”
We talk about our daughters. We each have three, and agree that our children are our best achievement. We discuss our Labradors. There are three in the book; and Jackie owns two. And, of course, we discuss sex.
“Men have this huge myth that women have to care about a man to have sex,” she says. “It is quite ridiculous! A woman can feel just as interested in sex as a man; and not want to see the man again the next day.”
Jackie has written an astonishing 26 books. She’s sold over 400 million copies. She’s also written screenplays, and produced films and mini-series. She wrote her first book in 1969; and it bothers her that, later, she got lumped in with the sex and shopping novels of the eighties.
“I never wrote sex and shopping. Hollywood Wives was about women who shop lifted. It was completely different. I am a storyteller and I don’t follow trends. I was writing before them. And I am writing after they have all way gone.
“They were writing cynically, and that doesn’t work. When Hollywood Wives came out a lot of Hollywood women said, ‘that is a book I could have written.’ I said ‘Why didn’t you?’ People don’t realise the slog of writing, and the sheer work of keeping the books out there.”
Jackie’s first novel exploded the myth of the double standard.
“All the books I read were by men. And all the women were in the kitchen or the bedroom. It was sex or cooking. I wanted my women to be really strong. It annoyed me that in a Harold Robbins book the woman would have an orgasm just looking at a guy. It was ‘no, no no. This is not right.
“I was way ahead of my time. When The World is Full of Married Men came out, an MP in England took out a half page in a Sunday Newspaper saying, ‘this is the most shocking book I have ever read.’ It was number one within two weeks. And I’ve never looked back,” she says, touching wood.
“I was on the Terry Wogan show with Barbara Cartland,” says Jackie with a chuckle. “She was all in pink and had a light between her knees which shone up at her face. She said, ‘Miss Collins is responsible for all the perverts in England.’ And I said, ‘oh thank you.’ What do you say? It was like being on a show with the Queen Mother.”
Jackie has always wanted to write. Expelled from her London school for truancy,
“and for waving at the resident flasher and saying, ‘cool day today isn’t it?” she joined her big sister Joan in Hollywood, acting, but thinking of herself as an out of work writer. “It was Hollywood or reform school,” she chuckles.
“I wrote stories from the age of eight. I wanted to be a journalist, but I was never encouraged. Everyone said, ‘you can’t be a writer or a journalist without having a degree.’ Hollywood was wonderful research.”
Jackie’s first husband was into drugs. Her second was twenty years older than her. An amazing man, he encouraged her.
“I had all these half finished novels stacked up. I’d write half, and think, ‘I am enjoying this book but I have a better idea.’ Subconsciously, I thought they would never get published so what was the point?
“My husband read one and said, ‘you are a great storyteller. You have to finish this.’ He was the first person in my life to say, ‘you can do it.’”
Passionate about writing, Jackie has an incredible work ethic. She writes six- sometimes seven days a week; she undertakes painstaking research; for Married Lovers she talked to prostitutes in Amsterdam; and to battered wives in Canada.
She’s a publicist’s dream. She toured 26 American cities in a bus to promote Married Lovers; she’s been to Moscow. After our lunch she’s taking time out with her daughters; but she’s also going to update the blog for her, excellent, website.
When she’d nursed her second husband through terminal cancer, Jackie lived happily with a fiancée, until he, too died of cancer. Still living in Los Angeles, she is now, happily single.
“I have a man for every occasion. I have one who likes to go dancing; one who likes the cinema. I have constant friends and live like a bachelor. I am never lonely. I write better when there is nobody to disturb me. My life is fantastic.”
Reports that Jackie doesn’t get on with her sister Joan are, she says, not true.
“We’re great friends. We had dinner, in London, this week. She helped me when I’d left school, and I paid her back, years later, when her career was flat on the floor. I wrote her a screenplay based on ‘The Stud’ for nothing; got the movie made, and the late Erin Spelling, who saw it, took the character for Alexis in Dynasty. Our success has been equal.”
Jackie polishes off her salmon; she compliments the chef; says she loved the champ, but declines a desert. Drinking green tea, she says she’s health conscious, but absolutely not obsessed.
“I swim at home. I have an enormous gym, but it’s at the other end of my huge house. By the time I get there I’m too exhausted to work out,” she says, laughing.
Jackie can’t imagine a life without writing. She’s planned her next three books and is also writing a play. What, though, is the message of Married Lovers.
“The message of this, and of all my books is to be stronger as a woman. The fitness instructor, Cameron has left her abusive husband, and that was not easy. She left in the middle of the night and has set up her own business. Women should always be stronger. My books have been around for a long time, and that message is always relevant.”
Married Lovers by Jackie Collins is published by Simon and Schuster at 14.99 euro.
© Sue leonard. 2008.
Interviewed by Sue Leonard.
Published in The Irish Examiner, 8th November, 2008.
When I was asked if I’d like to have lunch with Jackie Collins, my first thought, was ‘what will I wear?’ My second was a fear that she’d be a true diva; and that the conversation would dry before desert.
I wasn’t the only one feeling nervous that Saturday; the waitress who showed us to the lush gold seated alcove in The Shelbourne Hotel’s Saddle room, was in such a dither, that she assured us the setting was ‘romantic.’
“We don’t need romantic,” drawled Jackie.
Jackie looks great. I’d been told not to ask her age; and you’d never guess she was born in 1937. Her dark hair is thick and lustrous; her skin plump. She doesn’t have that stretched, expressionless mask that comes from too much ‘work’; her smile reaches her eyes; and her sultry laugh sounds genuine. I like her.
As we examine the menu, and decide on ‘gin and tonic salmon with Champ,’ we gossip. We discuss men; and particularly the two leads in Jackie’s new Hollywood blockbuster, Married Lovers. I loved the loyal, put upon Ryan. She’s in love with Don; a chat show host who is rather trickier.
“I’m bringing him back,” she tells me. “There is, definitely, going to be a sequel.”
We talk about our daughters. We each have three, and agree that our children are our best achievement. We discuss our Labradors. There are three in the book; and Jackie owns two. And, of course, we discuss sex.
“Men have this huge myth that women have to care about a man to have sex,” she says. “It is quite ridiculous! A woman can feel just as interested in sex as a man; and not want to see the man again the next day.”
Jackie has written an astonishing 26 books. She’s sold over 400 million copies. She’s also written screenplays, and produced films and mini-series. She wrote her first book in 1969; and it bothers her that, later, she got lumped in with the sex and shopping novels of the eighties.
“I never wrote sex and shopping. Hollywood Wives was about women who shop lifted. It was completely different. I am a storyteller and I don’t follow trends. I was writing before them. And I am writing after they have all way gone.
“They were writing cynically, and that doesn’t work. When Hollywood Wives came out a lot of Hollywood women said, ‘that is a book I could have written.’ I said ‘Why didn’t you?’ People don’t realise the slog of writing, and the sheer work of keeping the books out there.”
Jackie’s first novel exploded the myth of the double standard.
“All the books I read were by men. And all the women were in the kitchen or the bedroom. It was sex or cooking. I wanted my women to be really strong. It annoyed me that in a Harold Robbins book the woman would have an orgasm just looking at a guy. It was ‘no, no no. This is not right.
“I was way ahead of my time. When The World is Full of Married Men came out, an MP in England took out a half page in a Sunday Newspaper saying, ‘this is the most shocking book I have ever read.’ It was number one within two weeks. And I’ve never looked back,” she says, touching wood.
“I was on the Terry Wogan show with Barbara Cartland,” says Jackie with a chuckle. “She was all in pink and had a light between her knees which shone up at her face. She said, ‘Miss Collins is responsible for all the perverts in England.’ And I said, ‘oh thank you.’ What do you say? It was like being on a show with the Queen Mother.”
Jackie has always wanted to write. Expelled from her London school for truancy,
“and for waving at the resident flasher and saying, ‘cool day today isn’t it?” she joined her big sister Joan in Hollywood, acting, but thinking of herself as an out of work writer. “It was Hollywood or reform school,” she chuckles.
“I wrote stories from the age of eight. I wanted to be a journalist, but I was never encouraged. Everyone said, ‘you can’t be a writer or a journalist without having a degree.’ Hollywood was wonderful research.”
Jackie’s first husband was into drugs. Her second was twenty years older than her. An amazing man, he encouraged her.
“I had all these half finished novels stacked up. I’d write half, and think, ‘I am enjoying this book but I have a better idea.’ Subconsciously, I thought they would never get published so what was the point?
“My husband read one and said, ‘you are a great storyteller. You have to finish this.’ He was the first person in my life to say, ‘you can do it.’”
Passionate about writing, Jackie has an incredible work ethic. She writes six- sometimes seven days a week; she undertakes painstaking research; for Married Lovers she talked to prostitutes in Amsterdam; and to battered wives in Canada.
She’s a publicist’s dream. She toured 26 American cities in a bus to promote Married Lovers; she’s been to Moscow. After our lunch she’s taking time out with her daughters; but she’s also going to update the blog for her, excellent, website.
When she’d nursed her second husband through terminal cancer, Jackie lived happily with a fiancée, until he, too died of cancer. Still living in Los Angeles, she is now, happily single.
“I have a man for every occasion. I have one who likes to go dancing; one who likes the cinema. I have constant friends and live like a bachelor. I am never lonely. I write better when there is nobody to disturb me. My life is fantastic.”
Reports that Jackie doesn’t get on with her sister Joan are, she says, not true.
“We’re great friends. We had dinner, in London, this week. She helped me when I’d left school, and I paid her back, years later, when her career was flat on the floor. I wrote her a screenplay based on ‘The Stud’ for nothing; got the movie made, and the late Erin Spelling, who saw it, took the character for Alexis in Dynasty. Our success has been equal.”
Jackie polishes off her salmon; she compliments the chef; says she loved the champ, but declines a desert. Drinking green tea, she says she’s health conscious, but absolutely not obsessed.
“I swim at home. I have an enormous gym, but it’s at the other end of my huge house. By the time I get there I’m too exhausted to work out,” she says, laughing.
Jackie can’t imagine a life without writing. She’s planned her next three books and is also writing a play. What, though, is the message of Married Lovers.
“The message of this, and of all my books is to be stronger as a woman. The fitness instructor, Cameron has left her abusive husband, and that was not easy. She left in the middle of the night and has set up her own business. Women should always be stronger. My books have been around for a long time, and that message is always relevant.”
Married Lovers by Jackie Collins is published by Simon and Schuster at 14.99 euro.
© Sue leonard. 2008.
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