Alice still captiviates with healthy lashings of tea and talk
CELEBRATED AUTHOR CONTINUES TO WIN FANS WORLWIDE WITH HER WRITING
RENOWNED author Alice Taylor continues to delight her fans worldwide with each successive publication and her latest book, ‘ Tea and Talk’, is no exception.
The first chapter leads us into Alice’s garden in her home village Innishannon, and from there the book takes us on a magical journey which evokes hilarious laughter, tears, and long forgotten memories as Alice’s superb imagery touches chords buried deep within our psyche.
Another recent book, ‘Do You Remember’, is also a must for those who grew up in the Ireland of the 40s, 50s and 60s, and it also provides an invaluable insight for the younger generation into the early lives and times of their parents.
At every turn of a page, ‘Do you remember’ evokes a whole cascade of memories with each chapter gently nudging long forgotten scenes to the fore, and the reader is certain to revisit this book again and again.
Alice talks about our connection to the land - ‘ The Home Place’ in the very first chapter; “It matters not whether your home place is a tiny cottage or a grand house, it’s umbilical cord has the same pulling power. When I, like others left the shelter of the home I took with me a deep love of my home place, and whenever in later life I hit a rough patch, my best therapy was to go back and walk those fields” she says.
Alice, who has become one of the most admired and respected writers of her generation, was born and raised on a farm in Newmarket in north Cork. She worked as a telephonist in Killarney, later relocating to Bandon where she met her husband Gabriel. They settled in Innishannon where they owned and ran the Post Office and grocery shop. As well as working full time in the family business, Alice also ran a Guest House and was mum to five children.
Always an avid reader, she cites Jennifer Johnson, Meave Binchy, and Rosemund Pilcher among her favourite authors. When her son took over responsibility for the business Alice found she had some free time on her hands to pursue hobbies and interests long dormant - “for me life really did begin at 50” she said, and while she had always been interested in writing, she had never had the time to indulge this passion.
In 1984, Alice along with some of the community in Innishannon decided to produce a magazine for Christmas. Its aim was to document the lives and customs of local elderly residents who were in their 70s and 80s, and Alice was anxious to have a record of the village as it was then, because as she says “the present soon becomes the past”.
Discovering her natural flair for writing opened a portal to a whole new world for her - a collection of poetry followed in 1986, and shortly after this, Alice began writing her masterpiece ‘ To School through the Fields’ where she portrayed the way of life in rural Ireland during the 40s and 50s.
“It was a different world, the old Ireland had disappeared, in those times there was no car, no television, no indoor toilets, no tractors or modern farm machinery” she said.. After it’s publication in 1988, Alice quickly became a nationwide celebrity with appearances on the Late Late show, Womans Hour on BBC, the Gloria Hunninford show on ITV, and interviews on numerous radio stations both in Ireland and the UK.
Subsequent years saw her produce a raft of bestsellers which include Quench the Lamp, The Village, Country Days, The Night before Christmas, The Parish, and The gift of a Garden.
Alice has also produced books of poetry entitled; ‘ The way we are’, ‘Close to the earth’, ‘Going to the Well’, and ‘ The Journey’. Inspiration for her poems comes from emotions such as joy, grief, and happiness.
In 1997, Alice entered the realm of fiction for the first time with ‘ The woman of the house’, ‘Across the River’ followed in 2000, with the trilogy completed in 2005 with ‘House of Memories’.
Alice says that she plans the layout of each book before she starts, but as she writes, the characters assume their own unique identities, and sometimes the plot takes off in a different direction to what she had anticipated.
She wrote her earlier books by hand on A4 sheets, but with the arrival of computers taught herself to type, and now uses a laptop which she finds very convenient for writing and editing.
Alice is also an accomplished artist and her home bears testimony to this with several fabulous paintings of nature scenes, animals, and family members to be seen.
With the well of creativity truly overflowing in this wonderful author, we can currently enjoy ‘ Tea and Talk’ while looking forward in eager anticipation to many more fantastic books in the years to come.