Tell us about your new novel, Secrets Between Friends. What inspired it?
Secrets Between Friends is a novel about life after loss and the power of female friendships to support and help us. I know many women who have been widowed and have had to reshape their lives when one of the worst possible things has happened to them. I wanted to explore the experience of three different women.
One of your characters is called Bronte. Are you a fan of the sisters? Do you have a favourite?
It’s my homage to three amazing women writers whose books explored dark themes and the societal constraints placed on women. I don’t have a favourite!
You made your name with your debut novel Dreaming of a Stranger. Tell us about it.
Like the Brontes’ novels, it deals with societal constraints and women finding their path in a man’s world.
Your first career was as a financial trader for the Central Bank. What was that like and has it fed into your work?
My work for the Central Bank was as a regulator. My trading career was commercial. It was very interesting but solely focused on making money for the bank. Some of my books have financial backgrounds and characters have been inspired by people I met during my time in finance.
Your last novel, The Honeymoon Affair, featured a man who won the Booker Prize for a romantic novel. Was that an opportunity to write about the publishing industry?
It’s always fun to write about publishing but I also wanted to explore how men and women are treated differently when it comes to writing romantic fiction.
You won Popular Fiction Book of the Year for All for You. Is that your favourite or your best work?
I’ve written a lot of books since then. I always hope that I’ve learned something with each book and improve as a writer with every one I write. I’m very proud of All for You, which is about a difficult mother-daughter relationship, but I don’t have a favourite of my books.
Do you think the distinction between popular or commercial fiction and literary fiction is a false one?
Good writing is good writing whether it is literary or popular. There’s no need for intellectual snobbery about writing, but some people seem to feel superior by dismissing popular fiction.
You’ve spoke out about sexism in the industry, such as an event where male authors spoke individually but women authors were grouped together and called the Divas.
Giving greater attention to the work of men continues to be endemic in every industry. However, young Irish women writers have deservedly found great respect in the last number of years and they are treated as the individual stars that they are.
You wrote about your mother’s family story in The Woman on the Bridge. Tell us about it.
This is probably the book I’m most proud of as it deals with a tumultuous time in Irish history. I wanted to write about the impact of war on society, particularly on the women who had to keep going in very difficult situations and on families that were fractured because of divided loyalties.
Your mother and a sister died in 2023. Did that make you re-evaluate your life?
Losing family members makes you aware of how fragile our connections are and how important it is to make time for the people closest to us. I’m very cognisant of that in my own life.
Which projects are you working on?
I’m currently running some creative writing workshops for older writers.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
My novel, The Women Who Ran Away, is a literary pilgrimage itself. It follows a route through France and Spain and stops at locations where some classic authors were born or lived, or where some of my favourite novels were set.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
A published author is an amateur who wouldn’t quit
Who do you admire the most?
Every classical female novelist who had to publish her work under a man’s name.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law to you pass or abolish?
Male leaders have to retire at 70
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
I love Japanese authors and recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. I’m more of a TV series fan than a movie person and am enjoying the fifth series of Astrid: Murder in Paris. As a tennis fan, I enjoy The Tennis Podcast
What public event affected you most?
The passing of the marriage equality referendum in 2015.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
Mount Fuji, Japan.
Your most treasured possession?
Probably my phone!
What is the most beautiful book you own?
A copy of What Katy Did that was given to my mum as a Christmas present over 80 years ago.
Which writers living or dead would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Dorothy Parker, Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, Agatha Christie and my good pal Patricia Scanlan.
The best and worst things about where you live?
I’m in Clontarf. It’s mostly great except they’ve been digging and re-digging the same roads for about five years.
What is your favourite quotation?
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.
Who is your favourite fictional character?
Jane Marple.
A book to make me laugh.
Anything by PG Wodehouse.
A book that might move me to tears.
Room by Emma Donoghue
Secrets Between Friends by Sheila O’Flanagan is published by Headline on March 26th