Cathy Kelly is one of the biggest selling authors of the decade. This month she takes tea with readers at the Guildford Book Festival. Jane McGowan feels like a long-lost pal
After a few moments on the phone to Cathy Kelly I feel as if I am chatting to an old friend. Within minutes she has told me it’s her sons’ first day back at school and that, after the interview, she will be popping out to buy “stuff” to make “Jamie’s lasagne”.
“Who's he?” I ask politely.
Cathy hoots with laughter. Jamie, she informs me, is Jamie Oliver and her two teenage sons love his lasagne recipe.
After swapping stories about smelly socks and schoolwork, I remember that I am on the phone to one of the top 100 bestselling authors of the past decade who has more than 17 novels under her belt. I apologise and begin the interview.
“Oh, don’t worry, I love talking to people,” my new friend Cathy reassures me. “Writing is such a solitary profession and I am not a solitary person at all.”
What she is, however, is one of Ireland’s most successful novelists. Her debut, Woman to Woman (published in 1997), went straight to the number one spot on the Irish Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists. Then, in 2005, her first hardback, Always and Forever, outsold novels by JK Rowling and Dan Brown.
“They soon went back to the top,” she concedes, “but for one week it was great.”
Since then she has published a book roughly every 15 months and her 17th, Secrets of a Happy Marriage, hits the shelves on October 5 – just one week before she attends a special afternoon tea event for fans as part of this year’s Guildford Book Festival.
“I love to meet people and hear their stories. It gets the cogs going and keeps me invigorated.”
Born in Belfast in 1966 and raised in Dublin, Cathy began work as a journalist on the Sunday World, one of the largest selling papers in the Republic. After a stint as a features writer, she was asked to become the paper’s agony aunt.
“There weren’t many female reporters,” she recalls. “I had been the one writing about women’s issues, so it landed on me. I said that I’d give it a go for a few weeks and ended up doing it for five years. Some of the letters were heartbreaking. I was only in my late 20s and here were people who really needed help. This was pre-internet, of course, so I couldn’t just ‘Google’. I had to research and then offer an opinion.”
In 2001, Cathy’s burgeoning success as a novelist enabled her to quit and focus on fiction full-time. Along with works by Lisa Jewell, Jane Green and fellow Irishwoman Marian Keyes, Cathy’s tales of love, romance and daily dilemmas led the way in a new genre that was sweeping the book trade: chick lit.
It’s a phrase that Cathy now describes as “derogatory”.
“I was never fond of it,” she reveals. “But I was just so thrilled to have something published that I would never have dared to say anything at the time. Now I can speak out and I’ve made it clear that I am not a fan of the term. It trivialises women’s lives, suggesting that their interests are not important.”
Cathy’s latest book tells of a family preparing to celebrate one of the member’s key birthdays – and there is nothing like a big family occasion to expose all the cracks and crevices.
“A lot of my books are about coming to terms with stuff, which we all have to do at one time or another. There are no damsels in distress waiting for knights. I am not peddling dreams. Sometimes love is about knowing when to move on and think about yourself.”
When not writing or cooking for her 14-year-old twins, Dylan and Murray, Cathy is busy with her work as a UNICEF Ireland Ambassador raising funds for children born with HIV/AIDS.
“I have been involved for a long time. They first asked me to be in a book of famous Irish people which was being sold to raise cash, about 13 years ago, and from there I got more involved. It’s about being a voice. So many people need our help, there are so many crises and I understand that people get charity fatigue. But on the whole I am amazed at how philanthropic people are.”
To relax, settling down with a good book is Cathy’s favourite prescription.
“I’m a mad reader,” she declares. “I am editing at the moment and desperately wanting to read Marian’s [Keyes] new book, but I am terrified that I will start channelling it. So I’ll have to wait until I’m done.”
And before I can ask about other favourite authors she is off again, squealing with enthusiasm.
“And I love Pinterest. I’m addicted! I lose hours looking at pictures of crochet and jewellery. I’d have liked to have been a jewellery designer too,” she chuckles.
Still, with book sales totalling more than £20m, thousands of social media followers and an army of fans hanging on her every printed word, I think we can safely say she’s in the right job.
- Join Cathy Kelly and Fanny Blake for Afternoon Tea on Thursday Oct 12 from 3.30-5pm at Guildford Harbour Hotel. Tickets cost £22 to include sandwiches, freshly made scones, clotted cream and jam and a selection of homemade cakes. Visit: guildfordbookfestival.co.uk. Secrets of a Happy Marriage is published by Orion, priced £7.99 (orionbooks.co.uk)
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