Great reads for Christmas
SHE is one of the world’s most successful authors with her novels often turned into big screen hits.
But if I was expecting the daughter of Ireland’s former Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to be aloof, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Cecelia Ahern clearly has a sense of fun, and it soon emerges, a love of Scotland.
“Hello room,” she says, entering the creative cocoon that is her Dublin office. It’s a short stroll from the home she shares with her husband, Dave Keoghan, and their children, Robin, 6, and four-year-old Sonny.
“I always say hello when I come in,” she laughs. “I love it. It’s where I can let my imagination run.”
While the city sparkles with Christmas preparations we discuss her new novel, Lyrebird.
It’s the story of Laura, a beautiful young woman who lives alone in a forest and whose life is built on secrets.
Yet she possesses a remarkable skill – to spontaneously mimic sounds with startling consequences.
“I was inspired by a David Attenborough documentary about the lyrebird and its ability to mimic,” she reveals.
An admirer of Susan Cain, US author of The Power Of Introverts, the author explains: “Laura is an introvert in a world that values extroverts.
“While I am not Laura, I do consider myself introvert. It’s not about being shy, it’s about processing thoughts in a different way.
“Introverts usually have a lot going on in their heads and a lot to offer. Laura’s character meant I could put that philosophy into the novel.”
Cecelia was just 14 when she penned her first novel, Beans On Toast And A Bottle Of Beer.
Her first published novel was PS: I Love You, written by hand on sheets of A4 paper when she was only 21.
It became one of the biggest debut novels of 2004 and was made into a film of the same name staring Hilary Swank, Lisa Kudrow, Gerry Butler and Harry Connick Jr.
Now, 13 novels on and with the sequel to her first young adult publication, Flawed, due for release in March, she shows no signs of slowing down.
Promotions, film and TV commitments take her around the globe and she was in Edinburgh for this year’s International Book Festival.
She tells me: “It’s one of my most favourite cities in the world.
“I always feel we’re linked, the Irish and the Scots, don’t you?”