We sat down with Irish author Emily Hourican to find out what books inspire her, what she’s reading and take a look at her bookshelf.
Emily, this is your 9th novel. All novels, but especially your historical ones, based on the Guinness and Kennedy families, require deep explorative research. Do you love that? Can you lose yourself in history?
Yes and yes! I’ve always loved history – I love the idea of understanding people’s lives and the events that shape them, with more knowledge than we can ever have in our own eras. It’s the ability to see a big picture – even though no picture is 100 per cent accurate, ever – and try to understand the significance of world events on individual lives. Researching these Guinness and Kennedy novels has been amazing. For me, it’s a psychological excavation more than anything. I know the broad strokes of these characters’ lives – when they were born, died, who they married, where they lived, the headline stuff. What gets me really excited is discovering little details that suggest to me why they did certain things.
What is it specifically about the Kennedy’s and the Guinness’ that captivates you so much?
I am fascinated by families and family dynamics generally, and by sisters especially. That intersection of public and private lives, the glamour (yes, I’m afraid so…) but also the very human and inevitable tragedies that aren’t the work of a curse or anything dramatic like that, but are just the kinds of awful things that happen in most families – death, heartbreak, accidents, and so on.
Where do you find the time to write nine novels and write for The Sunday Independent, along with all else that family life brings?
I could say I’m a brilliant multi-tasker (and I am quite good) but in reality, it’s the hands-on support from my husband, a wonderful father, brilliant cook and the funniest man I know.
Your books have been described as utterly captivating, what type of books utterly captivate you?
It is LOVELY than anyone would describe my books as captivating. As for what captivates me – I love historical fiction. I love the immersiveness of being in the past, the curiosity I feel around the interior lives of characters based on real people – even though it’s fiction, good historical fiction feels like it gets this right – and the way books set in the past, done right, can show us things about the present – a light shone from then to now.
What’s been your page-turner of the year so far?
What have I loved this year? Old Romantics, by Maggie Armstrong. Charlotte, by Martina Devlin.
What are you reading at the minute?
Finding Mangan, by my sister, Bridget Hourican. Partbiography of poet James Clarence Mangan, partmemoir, and truly one of the most absorbing and beautifully-written books I’ve ever read.
The first book you remember?
The first book was a very boring Peter and Jane book, full of social stereotypes: mother in the kitchen, father at work, a brave son and gentle daughter, a house with a garden, a dog … Awful stuff, but the excitement of being able to read it has never left me. The first writer I remember really loving was Enid Blyton – especially the Famous Five. I adored those books.
A book you listened to on Audible and loved?
The Winter Guest, by WC Ryan.
The book you recommend to everybody?
I’ve just recommended Elizabeth Jane Howard’s The Cazalet Chronicles to a lovely young man who got in touch with me to say he loved my books and did I have any reading suggestions for him. I hope he loves them as I do. I’m always buying copies of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn for people, and The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy.
A Kennedy Affair by Emily Hourican is published by Hachette Books Ireland, Trade paperback, audiobook and ebook €15.99
