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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome back to the Women's Podcast. We are delighted to bring you this little bonus episode from our recent live event at Chapters Bookstore in Dublin. We were thrilled to have Clare Keegan with us for our Summer Reads event with our book club members and our audience had a lot of questions for her. So it sort of ended up being a bit of a literary masterclass.
She really is extraordinary and we were hanging on Clare Keegan's every word. Enjoy this bonus episode from Chapters with Clare Keegan. So have you any questions either for Claire or for Anne or Bernice or Niamh or me? But if anyone has a question, put your hand up.
Oh, yeah, great. Thank you for having us at the Women's Podcast. Claire, I want to know, were you consulted when... when your book was chosen for the leaving cert? And if so, could you have refused, which you probably wouldn't? And were you asked before, and was it a difficult decision? That's four questions. Was it a difficult decision to say yes?
Because my daughter's doing it for her leaving, and I brought her for that reason. One of the reasons. Hello, daughter.
She loves it. She loves, loves, loves it. Oh, well, thank you. There were no mixed feelings on my part at all with regard to having my work placed on the Leaving Cert. It's just simply a delight and a pleasure. I also think that the books you study on your Leaving Cert are probably special to you. The Great Gatsby was on the Leaving Cert when I did the Leaving Cert.
And I don't remember being asked so much as being told. And I may be wrong about that, but what I remember is the pleasure in being told, rather than anything else. Especially since I failed English in the Leaving Cert. So it really tickled me.
Claire, this is like a mic drop moment. You need to tell us more about failing English in the Leaving Cert.
I didn't fail anything else. Was it a higher level? I also failed English in the GCE. Sorry? I also failed English. It's the only thing I can have in common with you, Clare. No, indeed. Yeah, it's terrible. I couldn't believe it.
You have more in common. You both have published books. I think you have a lot in common. So we've got the failures here. The two failures. Anyone else failed English? No.
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Chapter 2: What is Claire Keegan's writing process like?
I didn't, no.
I didn't really go to school. That's true. Well, that makes sense then, how you failed.
Chapter 3: How does Claire Keegan feel about her book being on the Leaving Cert syllabus?
Yeah, it probably does.
And you passed everything else and did well. I did, yeah. Okay.
Okay. You see, but it does come down to, can you explain it? And I can't explain it. I'm not able to explain it. I can write it, but I can't explain it.
That's exactly, I know what you mean. Like you wouldn't be a good book critic. No, indeed.
No. Anyway, I wouldn't want to tell anybody what I thought of their books. I wouldn't. I think if somebody writes a book, you should say, well done.
That's exactly what we think as well, even though we're in a book club. That's mostly what we say. Well done to anybody who writes a book. I absolutely agree with that. And we love some of them more than others, but that's okay. It doesn't matter. But anyone who gets to the end of a book and it's the end and puts it in the world, fair play. And this place is full of them, thank goodness.
Anybody else got a question over here?
I have two questions for Clare. I was just wondering, like when I read your writing, I feel so calm. It's like there's like a spell or something. I'm sure other people feel the same. But I was curious, are you calm when you're writing? Or is it like a manic kind of, or is it calm? And I have another question, I'll just say it as well, which is, how do you know when you're finished?
And do you ever get sick of a story? Are you like, I'm done? Thank you. Those are good questions. Chekhov said to his, there are some wonderful letters Chekhov wrote to his brother Alexander, because his brother Alexander wasn't able to write very well at all. So there are letters full of good advice.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Claire Keegan have about adapting her work for film?
But do we have time for a couple more questions, Suzanne?
Thank you. I would love to know, first of all, it was great to hear you all talk about those amazing books. I would love to know what book you read as maybe a child or a teenager that kind of left an impression on you, each of you.
Each of us?
Yeah, I mean, it doesn't have to be long. Okay. Niamh? I read Atonement by Ian McCune when I was a teenager and it stuck with me. It's the only Ian McCune book I read, but I think it does that tension really well that you spoke about, Clare. That's one that sticks with me.
Bernice is looking very puzzled. Immediately what came to my mind was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mull. That book was just wonderful. And I think then it was made into a TV series, which is also brilliant. Yeah, I just loved how funny it was. And I just believe Adrian Mole exists somewhere. I just thought he was real. She just made it happen for me. So that's one. I mean, one of many.
I also, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streetfield was a book that, again, I can still picture everything that happened in that book. And I would have been very young reading it. Anything by her, actually. And I think it was just that post-war London. Maybe because you were from London, Mum. Maybe it resonated with me more. But she was a great writer, too. Yeah, I was thinking on it.
Then I was thinking, jeepers, am I just channeling yesteryear into my head? Because I was thinking of, you know, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Old Little House and the Prairie series. I loved them. And I also loved Agatha Christie.
I was going to say Agatha Christie too. But Rupert Bear was the first book that... See, that's very English, Anne, isn't it? I'm sorry. See, it's English. Oh, obviously. I was English once. Yeah, Rupert Bear was a little kid down the street from me who had this lovely anthology, all the illustrations and everything. And I remember I actually, well, I didn't actually steal it.
I took it and kept it for a little while. And anyway, Rupert Bear was my big thing. And then like you, Agatha Christie, then as I got a bit older, I loved Agatha Christie. And I had Peter Abbott, and there's a sentence in Peter Abbott that says, he gets into the watering can in the garden shed, and he says it would have been a beautiful thing to hide in had it not had so much water in it.
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