MY LIFE IN BOOKS
Author Sharon Dempsey tells us why she loves crime fiction and how her tastes grew from Enid Blyton to Tana French!
I grew up in Belfast in the 70s and 80s but despite the Troubles, I had a great childhood and books played a massive part in that. I read everything I could get my hands on. We lived near a library and frequented it, along with an excellent rabbit warren of a second-hand book shop. I devoured all the Enid Blyton’s books but especially loved The Famous Five series, and I credit them with inspiring my love of crime fiction. As I outgrew Enid Blyton, I moved on to the Across the Barricades series by Joan Lingard, as well as All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot and the Gerald Durrell Corfu books, My Family and Other Animals trilogy. I also loved Judith Kerr’s semi-autobiography When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit trilogy. I think every young person should read it to understand the devastation of persecution and war.
Michael McLaver ty’s book Call My Brother Back (1939) really af fected me as a young teenager. It tells the stor y of the uprooting of 15-year-old Colm MacNeill from Rathlin to a Belfast in the grip of the Troubles of the early 1920s. The imager y and descriptions of life on Rathlin island are truly beautiful.
A few years ago, I read A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and it destroyed me and blew me away in equal measure! I push it on to friends and family but it’s a dark, tragic book that divides readers.
The biggest influence on my writing has been crime writer Tana French. I love her murder squad series and Faithful Place is my favourite. It tells the stor y of Frank Mackey who finds himself investigating a case in the street where he grew up. The stor y has lots of long held family secrets that lead to a satisfying conclusion. I loved Tana French’s The Wych Elm too. She writes such great complex mysteries. Her latest book, The Searcher, is a wonder ful novel that proves that literar y fiction and genre fiction can go hand in hand.
I also loved Chris Whitaker’s We Begin at the End. The character of Duchess Day Radley is one that will stay with you long after closing the book.
Occasionally I need a bit of glamour in my life and then I turn to Taylor Reid Jenkins. I loved Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Both books of fer pure escapism and are so completely addictive that you won’t want to put them down.
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller, is another book I will be sharing with friends this summer. Mainly set in Cape Cod, it tells the story of the Bishop family and the loves and losses they experience over a lifetime. Totally immersive and beautifully written it is bound to become one that I return to.