I get
lots of questions about my books and the most asked one is, what’s the
influence behind it?
Well,
the influence behind Anam Cara is threefold: our fiftieth birthdays, my
friend’s marriage breakdown, and a family member’s illness.
Let’s
start with our fiftieth birthdays. My husband Simon is six months older than me,
and he dealt with the looming milestone with astonishing dread and panic. Age
had never seemed to bother him before – it’s never bothered me – but this birthday
carried such weight and anticipation. It wasn’t just a milestone – it was a
death sentence. A this is it now, the beginning of the end, moment. I
say moment – the build-up lasted a good two years! By the time Simon did
actually hit fifty, we were all – the entire family – exhausted from the
trepidation.
I understand, I do. My father-in-law died far too young, at sixty-nine. His father too, and his father before him. And it was something that Austin (my father-in-law) focused on and talked about often. He knew he wouldn’t reach seventy. It was his destiny, his heritage.
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| Simon's parents in 1962 |
And so, when Simon became fixated
about hitting fifty, and panicking about dying before the last Harry Potter
film was out, he managed to talk himself into an even earlier demise, with
ease. Luckily for us all, the final Harry Potter film was out two months
after his forty-eighth birthday. Thank goodness, I thought, this is the
end of his irrational panic. But it wasn’t.
He’s not
an irrational person as such; he’s overworked and in his job as a nurse, sees a
great many early deaths and cares for many patients in a bad way, much younger
than us. So I can see how it happens. Whereas I have always worked with
children. They keep you young. They don’t make you feel old – well, except for
when they ask things like, , 'So what did you do in the second world war?' Or
my favourite one: 'Miss, what sort of clothes did you wear in the Victorian
days?'
So we
got together, the children and I, and planned a week away for Simon and myself, to celebrate his birthday. The obvious destination was Stratford-upon-Avon; it’s where the magic started all
those years ago when we were drama students in our late teens. It’s always been
our favourite place ever since. There, and the Lake District. Although, the
Lake District is our family holiday haunt; Stratford is just for us.
Three plays at the RSC booked, pubs earmarked, museums noted, and riverside walks plotted, it was set to be a birthday to remember for all the right reasons. And best of all, Simon had no idea about it.
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| The Royal Shakespeare Company theatre. |
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| The Garrick Inn. The oldest pub in Stratford-upon-Avon, and a perfect place for lunch. |
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| William Shakespeare's birthplace on Henley Street. |
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| Boats on the River Avon. |
I’d found a romantic cottage in the village of Wilmcote, just outside Stratford, known for being the birthplace and childhood home of William Shakespeare’s mother, Mary Arden. A short drive, or train-ride, from the centre, it was the perfect base. We’d done some of the touristy bits before over the years, with the children, but two places had so far eluded us: Mary Arden’s Farm and Anne Hathaway’s cottage. They were our first two destinations.
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| Mary Arden's Farm in Wilmcote |
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| Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Gardens in Shottery. |
We fell
completely in love with Wilmcote and have been back every year (until Covid
happened), staying either at the cottage or the Mary Arden Inn. When I started
writing Cobbled Streets & Teenage Dreams three years later, using
Wilmcote as the home of my main character seemed the obvious choice.
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| The Mary Arden Inn, Wilmcote. |
And then
towards the end of our holiday, we got the phone call nobody wants. My
sister-in-law had been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. None of us were
prepared for it – we thought she just had ‘flu. ‘What does Stage 4 mean?’ I
asked. ‘I asked that, too,’ she said. ‘There is no Stage 5. This is
it.’
And so
we cried it out, we talked it out. We discussed who would look after my
brother. What to do about their children – all grown up, but children,
nevertheless. And life took a different turn. Simon and I came home from
Stratford, determined not to waste another moment of our lives fretting about
growing old.
I wanted a ring to mark my fiftieth. Something with a Celtic design, preferably made in Ireland, to celebrate my Irish ancestry.
I trawled through the internet, with an idea in my head, and found the perfect ring – a delicate Celtic knot design of interwoven hearts and studded with diamonds – from a jeweller in Dublin called ShanOre. Not only did they have the perfect ring for me, but I found one for Simon too; a chunky silver one, bearing the words Anam Cara. Soulmate.
I knew instantly that Anam Cara would make a great title for a book. All I had to do next was come up with a story to match the title!
Not long after, a friend’s marriage broke down. It came totally out of the blue and very dramatically. She and I have been friends since before marriage and children, so it really threw me. It’s the unexpected things that change your perspective, change your life. Make you realise just how unpredictable it all really is, and how we should never take anything for granted. We should treasure what we have that’s good and shed what’s bad.
And so,
I combined the three separate situations – hitting fifty, dealing with an
illness, and going through a breakup – and set about putting Anam Cara down
on paper.
The main character, Brianna Hillingdon, is a mum of three. She’s dealing with a new way of life now that the children have left home. She’s also dealing with that milestone birthday. We all deal with change differently but the shift from full-time mum to mum with an empty nest, is a pretty powerful one, and the emotions I went through when it was my turn, mirrored those of my friends and family in the same position, and that is reflected in how my character deals with it, too.
Although we live in the seaside town of Bournemouth, I’ve
always been in love with the Purbecks, in particular, the village of Corfe Castle.
It’s picturesque, full of charm and very friendly. The perfect location for my novel. It was our
first outing beyond Bournemouth when Simon & I first arrived here in 1985. We
took the open topped bus across the chain ferry, through Studland, and on to
Corfe Castle. It was pouring with rain by the time we arrived, so we abandoned
the castle grounds and camped out in the National Trust tea rooms, huddled by
the fire, until the neighbouring pub opened. Yes, back then all day opening
hadn’t been thought of yet.
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| Corfe Castle, from God's Acre burial ground, West Street. |
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| National Trust Tea Room, The Square (by the castle entrance) |
Corfe Castle became our go-to place, as did Studland, and it was always my dream to live in either village. But my dream house required a lottery win, which hasn't happened so far. So we made do with days out; activity days at the castle, Halloween trails on Studland beach, celebration treats in the National Trust tea rooms , and spending pocket money in the gift shops and village post office. As the children got older, our visits are more for long walks & hill climbs, and ice creams on the beach at Studland or by the river at Wareham.
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| Studland beach looking towards Bournemouth & Poole |
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| Studland beach looking towards Old Harry Rocks |
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| Wareham Quay & The Old Granary |
The
house I used as Brianna’s home on West Street in Corfe Castle, is real. It was on the market a few years ago
for a tidy sum (more praying for that lottery win) so I was able to collate the
information from Rightmove, adding my own imagination and plans of how I would
change things if it were mine.
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| Brianna's house. |
A walk down West Street, up to Corfe Common.
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| The Common at the top of West Street stretches across to Kingston |
The other main character in Anam Cara is Niall Feenan. His character came about after an interview I heard with the actor, Cillian Murphy. He talked about wanting to be a musician but opted for acting instead because he didn’t feel confident enough to pursue his dream career. It worked out rather well for him I think. I found it interesting to hear somebody so established, and so talented, talking about vulnerability and fear of chasing what he really wanted to do. That fear of failure gets us all, including the likes of Cillian Murphy.
I gave Niall the voice of Cillian Murphy and the ancestry of my family from Cork
and Dublin. And his surname, Feenan, is one of my grandparents’ names – as is
Murphy, incidentally. Brianna’s three children, Patrick, Sean and Kitty, are also
family names.
I chose
to make Brianna American because my ancestors from Cork wanted to move to the
promised land back in the 1800’s, but only half of them could afford it. The
rest stayed in Ireland, some eventually working their way over to England but
never reaching their dream of joining family in America. So I wanted to explore
the idea of an American-born Irish woman leaving her homeland in pursuit of her ancestral roots.
And
Brianna’s love of the Famous Five books as a child – that was mine. The
obsession with Julian – also mine. And that was partly why Simon & I moved
to Dorset, to follow in Enid Blyton’s footsteps. She had a home down here and
before that, would stay in Studland each year on holiday. It’s a beautiful
place. The sun really does shine here … most of the time.
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