The Press
It's 7pm in wintry Dublin when Marian Keyes rings me at 8am in summery Christchurch.
We're discussing her next surefire bestseller, The Other Side of the Story. Its subject is something Keyes surely knows much about - writing and the business of book publishing.
Born in the west of Ireland in 1953, Keyes is now one of the world's bestselling authors of "30-something,” novels, or chick-lit as it is sometimes called. She has published six books: Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Sushi for Beginners, and Angels. They are published in 35 countries worldwide and have been translated into twenty-nine different languages, such as Hebrew and Japanese.
Her latest novel, The Other Side of the Story, is set in the competitive world of publishing and covers such diverse areas as love, loyalty, depression, desertion, glass ceilings, survival tactics, and what to do when you get your chance for revenge.
Talking to Keyes is a bit like reading one of her novels - settling down for a chat with an old familiar friend.
In her soft Irish brogue, she tells me what she thinks makes this novel different from her previous six.
"Structurally it's different in that it's more complex, and it gives different versions of the same event,"
Keyes uses humour to write no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is novels about emotional issues and slightly girly topics; hence her books are often mentioned in the same breath as Bridget Jones's Diary and Helen Fielding.
"This time, she says, "I'm using comedy to write more about gender issues - about how women cope in the workplace, how when both parents are working, it's always the woman who ends up doing the majority of the childcare, and it's about how older women are often thrown over and abandoned in favour of younger women. So there was a shifting from looking internally at emotional stuff, to looking externally at the world we live in, and seeing what we've done with feminism. How far we've come and how far we still have to go."
In The Other Side of the Story, we follow the travails of three women protagonists - Gemma, a 32-year-old event planner whose dad has dumped her mum for his secretary; Lily, Gemma's ex be st friend who has a child with Gemma 's ex-boyfriend, plus a budding! Writing career; and Jojo, unconventionally sexy ex-New York cop turned London literary agent.
Keyes talks about her characters as if they are fond old friends, which they probably are by the time she reaches the end of a 648-page novel like The Other Side of the Story.
The one closest to Keyes's own personality is "probably Gemma". "Definitely not Jojo. Jojo is the woman I want, to be when i grow up, but I will never be a Jojo. She's so uncomplicated and she's so pragmatic. She's so good at just cutting through the crap. And she's not afraid of offending people. She manages to be charming most of the time. I'd be far more fearful of upsetting people.
"I'm not really Lily, either. I suppose I suffer a bit from Lily's guilt - she's kind of guilty about everything. But I'm not a flake in the same way that she is. She's so bad with money."
The author spent time at Irish Tatler magazine -when researching Sushi for Beginners, which is set in the goodie-bag grabbing world of women's magazines, and she did some similar research for The Other Side of the Story.
"I didn't really have to research publishing, although I did speak to some of the agents to find out what would you do when you got a certain book in, and how would you organise an auction. And I wanted to find out how much they got paid - it's less than we thought."
As well, Keyes researched Geninla's event management job: "In a way I feel drawn to that sort of work, having been a control freak. The idea of making evereything lovely ... although I would be on the valium within the first few minutes. It 's nice in theory but I'm sure the actual process is horrific.
"But then with Jojo -this is the nicest bit - I went to New York. And I spent time with firefighters. I spent the day at the firehouse with my sister and my friend, but it's funny, though. They were so shy! They were so uncomfortable with women being there.
"It's a macho kind of a place and they were being very kind - they were giving me their time and giving all their stories. But the minute we left, they were probably like:'Oh thanks be to God, they're gone!"'
Keyes, who has sold more than seven million books, is hesitant when asked to pinpoint the reasons behind their popularity.
"I can only go on what other people tell me, because I never had a grand plan. I think the comedy is always attractive. I think people always like a laugh. But I think my readers know that I respect their intelligence and I will always write about something substantial or worthwhile and something relevant, to them. But I do it in a way that's pleasant to read - that the comedy will make painful issues bearable.
"People say that I'm very warm about my characters, which again I had no idea I did. People talk about the endings of my books being very hopeful, that, they feel like the world is a better place, that things aren't so grim. So I think it's a combination between hopefully presenting them with an intelligent read and being life-affirming in some way. But I don't sit down and go: 'Right then. I'm going to write a lifeaffirming, intelligent, kind, warm book with a hopeful ending'," Keyes says.
"Also, because the post-feminist world is a confusing one, I try to articulate some of the concerns that we all have about it. It's funny - as women, we have stopped. Feminism has ground to a halt .
“I mean, feminism is a dirty word. Men have appropriated the word and it's kind of been distorted and warped. It's been given back to us and it means: unattractive, hairy-legged woman who can't get a boyfriend. I think it's time we reclaimed the word `feminist' and the concept `feminism' and started to move forward again."
Up next for the busy author is a tour of New Zealand, and she's already started her next book - a take on the beauty industry, which will no doubt have a witty, slightly subversive edge, but in the nicest possible way.