The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
The heart of Summer
What was supposed to be a short trip to London in March has – thanks to lock-down – turned into an extended stay for West Kerry based author Felicity Hayes as she tells Fergus Dennehy all about her new book
RENOWNED author Felicity Hayes McCoy had little to no sympathy for me earlier this week when on the phone before we chatted about her new book – ‘The Heart of Summer’.
I lamented to her about the disappearance of all the beautiful sunshine we’d been enjoying over the past few weeks. For Felicity – normally a resident in one of Kerry’s most stunning areas, Baile an Fheirtéaraigh – it was just another reminder of all that she is missing back here in her adopted home as she remains trapped in London due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“I’ve seen all the photos from back there over the last few weeks, and here I am looking out from a London flat! Ye’ve had a very good run of it, ” she laughed.
Felicity may be a Dublin native, but confided to us that after her first trip to Kerry back when she was 17, she then and there made it her life’s goal to be successful enough to be able to move to Kerry – West Kerry, specifically – on a permanent basis.
“I was studying English and Irish up in Dublin, and I don’t know for what reason, they decided to send me down to learn Munster Irish – they obviously thought I had some connection to it – so away they sent me down here on a scholarship for a few weeks, and I fell completely in love with the place almost straight away,” she said.
“The people, the place, all of it. I just loved it, and I suppose I spent 30 years of my working life working towards getting an opportunity to live there and now, thankfully, my husband and I have a lovely little house on the side of a mountain back in Ballyferriter,” she said.
As for how she ended up spending almost the entirety of lock-down away from her beloved Kerry, Felicity jokes that it was just bad timing on her and her husband’s part.
When COVID-19 really began to take hold in the country, Felicity and her husband had just travelled over to London for what was supposed to be a very quick trip.
“So sure were we that we’d only be over there a short time that we left food in our fridge back in Kerry, and so when we realised that we were going to be here in London for a lot longer, we had to call one of our neighbours to go in and take the food out and tidy the place up. We didn’t want to be coming back to a fridge full of rotten food!” she joked.
The fact that she is chatting to us today about her new book, entitled ‘The Heart of Summer’ – the sixth book in her acclaimed ‘Finfarran’ series – shows that she’s achieved her goals and then some.
First things first, though, for those interested in the book and what it’s all about, here’s a look at what the blurb has to say:
“It’s summer in Finfarran on the west coast of Ireland. Librarian Hanna Casey is looking forward to al fresco lunches, and to balmy evenings with her boyfriend Brian in their stunning new house in the beautiful Hag’s Glen.”
With family dramas and a painful divorce behind her, Hanna and Brian are browsing romantic holiday brochures. Then, unexpectedly, Brian’s adult son moves in with them and Hanna re-encounters Amy, one of three girls with whom she shared a London flat in her 20s. And all of a sudden, she begins to question her apparently perfect life.
When Amy suggests a visit to London’s bright lights and a flatmates’ reunion, Hanna accepts. But she’s plagued by misgivings. In London, Amy introduces Hanna to a handsome London banker who asks her to work with his family’s library charity. It’s a chance to be something more than a local librarian who’s settled back into the little rural community where she grew up. But it means that Hanna has tough choices to face.
‘The Heart of Summer’ was released on May 28 and even though it was a more muted celebration than it normally would have been with book signings and a book tour all impossible to do, Felicity told The Kerryman that the love she has received for the book online through messages and calls has more than made up for it.
“It [publication] was just absolutely extraordinary. It was weird and it was kind of sad in one way because it threw up the reality of the situation. You’d normally just keep going from day to day in lock-down, but then something like that happens and you’re suddenly thinking ‘oh God, what would I be doing normally?’
“The thing is, though, what was just gorgeous is that I’d have a large social media following and what happened was a couple of friends back here, they sent me over a bottle of Dingle Gin for us to mark the occasion.”
“What happened was from the very moment that we got up on the morning of publication day right through to the end of the day, I had this stream of lovely messages on Twitter and Facebook congratulating me on the book. They were from readers and friends at home in Ireland, people all over Kerry and even one from the Dingle Peninsula’s own Twitter account. It was amazing,” she said.
‘The Heart of Summer’ is out now and is available to buy from all good bookshops and is available to order online.
I was studying English and Irish in Dublin and, I don’t know for what reason, they decided to send me down to Kerry to learn Munster Irish but away they sent me down there on a scholarship for a few weeks. I fell completely in love with the place almost straight away.
Publication day was just extraordinary. It was weird and kind of sad because in one way, it threw up the reality of the situation and what you’d normally be doing.