Bonus episode: Claire Keegan Q&A
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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.
Bernard McClaverty failed English in The Living Cert. And he, I love his books. I got really cross about it at the time. James Joyce got 200 rejection letters for Dubliners, I think.
Catherine Stockett got 60 rejection letters for the help, just to say. But I just don't understand how you failed English. You were someone who read all the... But you really were interested in reading. You read a lot at that time?
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.
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?
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