Here we sit down with bestselling author Michelle McDonagh to chat about her new book, If These Walls Could Talk…
My earliest reading memory is…
Holding my father’s hand while I skipped giddily up the wide flight of varnished stairs to the first floor of the courthouse in Galway where the children’s library was housed. The familiar sweet musty scent, the rows of books to escape into. A quiet, magical world where I felt at home.
My most memorable book growing up was…
The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton. These books involving children being transported into a magical world in which they meet fairies, goblins, elves, and pixies really nurtured my imagination as a sensitive child, and inspired me to start writing my own stories at a young age.
The book that made me want to write…
There wasn’t any one book, but again it was The Faraway Tree series about three children who discover a huge tree in an enchanted wood, inhabited by fairy folk, the top of which leads to ever changing magical lands.
My ideas come when…
At any time, but often when I’m reading a newspaper article, court report or agony aunt column (a great source of domestic noir ideas). And also from stories I hear from other people. Truth does tend to be stranger than fiction.
My writing desk is…
In my office at home with my adored cavapoo Brody sleeping underneath. I’ve always wanted a library style book wall and have just spent the weekend building a small one behind my desk, which I’m thrilled with.
The book I’m reading at the moment…
All Of Them Lied by Gill Perdue, (out June 11) a fantastic novel by one of my favourite Irish crime writers.
The writers I love the most are…
Louise Candlish, Katherine Faulkner, Lisa Jewel, Andrea Mara, Liz Nugent and Gill Perdue.
The books on my bedside table…
The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, Everything I Wish I’d Known About Anxiety by Caroline Foran, and a constant pile of psychological suspense.
The last book that made me laugh…
So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne. Set around three friends and a baby shower, this book is laugh-out-loud funny as well as utterly gripping.
The book I listened to on audio and loved…
I don’t listen to books on audio, I prefer reading them and listening to podcasts.
The book that should be on everybody’s shelf…
The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, one of the world’s leading experts on traumatic stress, how the body holds it, and new treatment approaches.
My new book is…
If These Walls Could Talk (out June 18). It opens with Hazel McNamara on the phone to her husband Darragh when she hears the screech of tyres on the other end. He shouts her name – then silence. His jeep is found overturned in a field off the motorway. Darragh is gone, leaving behind him a trail of deception leading to places Hazel never imagined and truths she may not survive. Taut, atmospheric and deeply unsettling, it’s a story about obsession, betrayal and the secrets that fester behind closed doors.
If These Walls Could Talk by Michelle McDonagh is published in Trade Paperback by Hachette Books Ireland, €15.99