My mother was a trained nurse, and she'd tell me that patients would fight as they were administered anaesthetic, grappling to get the gas mask off their face.
From Maeve Binchy
Growing up in Ireland, there never seemed to be the notion that children should be seen and not heard. We all looked forward to mealtimes when we'd sit around the table and talk about our days. Storytelling and long, rambling conversations were considered good things.
On the first day of school, my father told me I'd be the most popular girl and everyone would love me and want to be my friend. It wasn't so, but it gave me an enormous amount of confidence.
My father went to work by train every day. It was half an hour's journey each way, and he would read a paperback in four journeys. After supper, we all sat down to read - it was long before TV, remember!
I do realize that I am a popular writer who people buy to take on vacation. I'm an escapist kind of writer.
I was just lucky I lived in this time of mass-market paperbacks.
If I see Marian Keyes' books or Patricia Scanlan's books given more prominence than mine in the bookstore, I'll move mine to the front. I've told them I do this, and they've confessed to doing the same thing to me.
I think I'm brave because I've made decisions based - I hope not entirely selfishly - on what I think is right for me to do next.
5 perspectives
4 perspectives
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives