Maggie O’Farrell

And you'd only really know if you looked at my surname.

So in a sense, I don't really know.

When people say, where are you from?

I have to kind of give them a paragraph rather than...

one word.

So it's confusing, you know, but I think it's an interesting... I think it gives you a kind of interesting long lens on both countries in a way, which maybe to write this book was important in a way.

I've also read that it's perfectly possible to tell the history of Britain without any reference to Ireland, but you couldn't possibly tell the history of Ireland without reference to Britain, so...

Maybe having a foot in both countries was useful for writing the book.

I don't know.

That's a pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

Well, it's all quite exciting.

I saw it on the side of a bus for the first time today, which is quite exciting.

And I did have to take a photo of it.

My teenage daughter was really embarrassed.

But I said, nobody around us knows why I'm taking this photo of a bus.

It's just only you and I know.

Well, I was so thrilled that Jessie won the Critics Circle Award for Actress because she deserves it to the moon and back.

It's just so wonderful to see her incredible work being recognised.

But I think I might be the luckiest author in the world because...