Louise McSharry

So you are working at that time as a political journalist during COVID, covering COVID, which I mean, that was such a crazy time.

A friend of mine, and I don't think she'll mind me saying this, but a friend of mine at the end of 2019 changed jobs to take a job in communications in the Department of Health.

Oh my goodness.

Because she wanted more flexibility in her work and a slightly less stressful job.

or IP all of your spare hours literally like like you know a month after she started COVID kicked off like it was so bananas oh my goodness I can only imagine being on the other side of it trying to get the information trying to write your pieces that must have been a crazy time for you sorry I'm just thinking of your friend yeah like

Yeah, it's so funny because during the pandemic, I was on the radio every Saturday and Sunday morning during the during the bulk of like the really challenging times.

I started my new show, I think, in January 2020.

So I feel really lucky that my job was mainly to distract people like I did cover news in one section of the show, but mainly I was trying to.

Distract people, come up with things for people to do, like, you know, try and lift spirits and like keep the show on the road.

And honestly, I like I'm so grateful that that was my job because that helped me as well.

Like, I can't imagine if her job was doling out the hard news like that's tough.

Well, I love that.

And I also love the fact that like, you could have potentially written something that was like set in a really beautiful, happy world where nothing ever goes wrong, but that is not what you chose to do.

No, because, yeah, it is dark, isn't it?

I mean, it actually says in the front, dark secrets are a family affair.

And that's exactly, I mean, that really captures it.

It is kind of dark and twisted webs that, you know, only exist really in families, I think.

Totally.

When relationships are so complex and there's so much love, but then there's also deep-seated jealousy, frustration, all the other things that you can imagine.

Yeah.