60 second interview
Marian Keyes, 37, claimed the mantle of chick-lit queen with her first offering, Rachel's Holiday, and since then her Midas touch has gilded everything she's written. In Sushi for Beginners, Keyes transplants the action to the back-stabbing, freebie grabbing climate of Dublin's magazines, where heroine Ashling Kennedy tries to keep her head above water and out of her bitch boss's radar.
Are you incredibly superstitious?
Mediumly, yes. I always read my horoscope and I'm more inclined to believe it when it's bad rather than when it promises good things. My mother is a card-carrying Catholic so whenever I want or need something I make her say prayers for me. She's been a pretty busy woman.
Has the sex'n'shopping book usurped the Aga saga?
Sex and shopping was about ten year ago, then came the Aga saga and now it's come full circle and we're back to the full-blown sex and shopping novel again - ordinary girls have become glam again: lad lit's probably up next.
Celebrity death-match between Bridget Jones and Ashling Kennedy, who would win?
Oh Bridget, I'm sure. I don't think Ashling has the anger. Then again she's very practical, she may well have some kind of rape device in her handbag. OK, I think it would be neck and neck but despite her practicalities Ashling would probably talk Bridget down, persuade her out to the pub.
You've been called the hottest young female writer in Britain, how does the mantle fit?
It's an enormous compliment but I don't wake up in the morning and think: 'Wa-hey, I'm the voice of the nation.' It's wonderful to think what I'm writing is touching chords as I'm very honest in my books and the fact it has such a wide identification makes me feel better. I always though I was kind of weird - clearly I'm not.
You're naturally shy, has it abated any?
I'm still very easily intimidated but as I've got older I've got less neurotic, less judgmental, more accepting of myself. It's a lovely, compensatory aspect of growing older, that those voices in your head recede. Your hair might be going grey but the voices in your head aren't as loud.
How do you do your writing?
I always write from my bed, under the duvet. It's 11 am now and I'm still in my nightdress. I start at around 7.30 or 8 am and do a full eight hours.
You did a job at the Irish Tatler to research Sushi for Beginners; was it all back-stabbing and freebies?
It was a lot tougher and a lot less glamour that I'd imagined. The big surprise is they work very, very hard. It was a small team, they work long hours and they were all good at multi-tasking. The whole thing with freebies is they stay at the top of the foodchain and there's no trickle-down. It was good to demystify that.
What's your idea of pure, unadulterated bliss?
A big box of Maltesers, a foot massage and a holiday brochure.
Richard Nixon, Jeremy Beadle or Noel Edmonds - and you have to sleep with one of them.
Oh, you're evil, they're terrible ones. Well, I think Richard Nixon is a very bad man and Noel's jumpers are absolutely awful. I think it's going to have to be Jeremy Beadle as the least awful option.
Who's your ideal Milky Way man - the man you can metaphorically eat between meals without losing your appetite?
Keanu Reeves. I was always very fond of him. I think he's very well meaning, he's got heart and he's a beautiful looking man.
After your own personal struggles you were very vocal about alcoholism and depression. Do you regret that now?
That was one of the things I was thinking about when I went so public, that it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's a condition like diabetes. Nobody wilfully decides to become an alcoholic. It we could be more accepting and more open, I think people would be able to unburden themselves and get support. But the whole area has been taboo for so long, I think this really hindered people in getting help.
Your books hinge on searching for happiness, have you finally found it?
God, I'll touch wood here. I spent all my life yearning, wanting my life to be different, wanting me to be different. Now, well, I'm not throwing my hat up in the air every day but I am very accepting of myself and very, very grateful for what I have. I suppose you can't say fairer than that.