It's 20 years since author Cecelia Ahern broke onto the literary scene at 21 with her first novel, P.S. I Love You. With her 20th book about to be released, Janice Butler talks to her about how much that first book changed her life, how motherhood influences her writing and finding confidence in her work.
Cecelia Ahern was at the same college as me, doing the same journalism and media course. She was a year ahead and even though those college days are 20 years ago now, I remember very clearly when she got her first book deal for P.S. I Love You just after she graduated. It was a high bar for the rest of us. Some predicted she would be a one hit wonder, and being the then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s daughter may have helped convince the publisher.
Now, as she celebrates the release of her 20th novel, Into the Storm, it’s safe to say she’s proven those cynics wrong. "I think they were shocked in college," she laughs. "I don’t think anyone there thought I’d be writing novels. I found the creative writing classes hard because I would rather do my own thing. But ya, I would say people were surprised."
After the aforementioned degree, Cecelia signed up for a Master’s in Film but stayed in the course for just three days, deciding it wasn’t for her. She had an idea for a book, which became P.S. I Love You and it changed her life.
"I’m glad I left and did what I did because my life changed completely. Sometimes, I wish I finished that course and had that knowledge. Especially working in TV and film now, I feel I’ve no qualification, so I’m learning as I go," she says of her other job, writing scripts for screen.
"At the time, my mother said, if you’re not doing the course you have to put your focus on something else, so I was determined to show them I was serious about that book and it really did take over my life. But thankfully, everyone around me was very supportive," she says of those first days as a nascent author.
I have met Cecelia for coffee and a chat about Into the Storm. Hers is a decaf, having given up caffeine in her early 20s. "I just can’t have anything like that. My body just goes into total shakes, even with tea, so I have to have it caffeine-free. I don’t like that feeling of adrenaline, same as I don’t want to jump out of an airplane" she laughs.
20 years on, 20 books later and three children with her husband David Keoghan, how does she recall that time and all that’s happened since? "Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday but then you’re like, 'that feels like 20 years’. I think leading up to the anniversary of P.S. I Love You earlier this year, I felt nostalgic about that time. It’s amazing to look back at what I’ve done and how life has changed so much."
Into the Storm reads differently to her previous novels. "Some people have said it feels like a thriller," she explains, "but it’s not – it’s me, but it's a little bit darker or more haunting. But I’ve not leaped genres or anything."
It tells the story of GP Enya, who comes across the victim of a hit and run on a wild December night and finds her life turned upside down. She leaves her husband, her son and everything she knows, to start a new life in rural Ireland. Enya is struggling as she approaches the age when her mother died, when she was only a girl. "This was a storyline I had wanted to give a character; it was interesting to me that people can go either way with that, where they have the anxiety of facing that ‘death age’ and cannot see their life beyond that," Cecelia explains.
Ancient Celtic paganism and tradition flow through the book, including a Rag Tree, which was inspired by a walk with her family one day during lockdown in Dublin. "I was walking in the Botanic Gardens with my Dad and my sister and I came across a rag tree. It sparked off something in me. I had memories of rag trees from our drives to Kerry as kids, when we used to go there every year. They're about healing and every rag or trinket on the tree tells a story, which is very me. So, it all came from the tree really."
Cecelia’s books have sold over 25 million copies in more than 40 countries, and been translated into 30 languages. Alongside her writing career, Cecelia has created, produced and written TV series such as Samantha Who? as well as working on adaptations of her novels P.S. I Love You, Love, Rosie and most recently, the Apple TV production of her short stories, Roar, starring Nicole Kidman.
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She says she’s still learning, despite her 20 years in the business. "I never think ‘That’s it, I know everything now’. Things are always changing, especially in publishing. The landscape is changing all the time, so you never have it all sussed," she says. "But in terms of my creativity, I understand how I work now, so it’s easier for me to discuss that as opposed to when you just have one or two books. When you’re younger, you think you’re going to know everything when you’re 40, but I’m still figuring things out."
Cecelia reveals that she still writes all her books in longhand first, before transcribing to a computer, as she did with her first one. "It’s just how my mind works. It feels more creative to me. I enjoy handwriting, it’s relaxing and I can see the picture in my head as I’m writing. It’s like painting a picture. The first draft, I write with my heart and you’d never publish it. I go back then and fix it with my head," she laughs.
Cecelia and her family live in north Co Dublin, where she grew up with her sister Georgina.
They welcomed their third baby in 2019, Blossom, a sister to Robin (14) and Sonny (12). Has motherhood change her as an author? "I think it has to change things. It brings a huge amount of life experience and I’ve three other people to guide and be their advocate. Having children opens your eyes to very different personalities and I think as an author, you’re empathetic as it is, so motherhood just enhances that," she explains.
"When I had my first child and went back to work, I remember my editor said there was less waffle, I got to the point much quicker. So, I’m probably far more efficient," she laughs.
She explains that at times, the job has allowed a good work/life balance at home, fitting in with the kids’ schedules. "It’s been a process to try and get it right, but I suppose I’m very lucky in that I have a job, I have a delivery date to meet but I can choose the hours at which I do that, and it has changed over the years. I’ve gone from doing nine to five to three-day weeks or four-day weeks, tried everything depending on the kids’ schedules and where they’re at with school."
She works at home mostly. "I can write on the couch beside the kids; I can pretty much write anywhere now," she laughs. Although, she admits, her ideal set-up is "away in a room with a candle lighting.
"They get really involved now, which is really nice. My four-year-old is probably most excited about it all at the moment, just because she’s at that age when she really enjoys books. I have a little desk beside mine in my office and she makes her books, sitting beside me. It’s very cute," she smiles. "I wouldn’t have done that with the others but that’s what experience brings.
"I love talking to my 14-year-old about my books and the ideas I have. I’ll say ‘I’ve come up with this idea, what do you think?’ It’s good to say it out loud and the feedback is good, to get their perspective," she adds.
When it comes to her TV and film work, Cecelia works with her husband David on those projects, but she admits they can be challenging.
"It’s more heartbreaking than books because I can write scripts and develop scripts and you can get far along with them and then they get shelved, or people acquire them and hold onto them for years," she explains. "With my books, I know they’ll be delivered, and people will see them, but I don’t have that with the TV work. Sometimes I wonder do I want to keep going with it, but you have to, that’s how stuff gets made. I remain ever hopeful.
"It’s really nice to have David working with me on them, because he can bring to it certain things that I can’t. I can concentrate on the creative side of things – the business side of it gives me a headache, so it’s nice to have someone to do all that with," she adds.
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The publicist comes over to our table to gently tell us we’ve been chatting for over an hour and that Cecelia has somewhere else to be, which is volunteering for Meals on Wheels. She tells me she’s already finished her next book and is in the planning stages for the one after that. It feels like I’m back in college all over again, very impressed by Cecelia’s energy.
Does she ever struggle to find a story, I ask? "I have my books in my office and just the other day, I was looking at the shelves, thinking I can’t believe I’ve done that. So yes, when there are days I feel I can’t finish a sentence, I look at that shelf," she smiles.
Into the Storm by Cecelia Ahern is published by Harper Collins on October 10.
