Under the Duvet with Marian Keyes
Marian Keyes turned her life around after beating alcoholism and is now busy writing her sixth novel (in bed of course). She talks to Woman's Way about writing, marriage and her ideal holiday.
Marian Keyes has sold over six million copies of her novels worldwide since her first book. Watermelon, was published in 1995. Crowds turn up for her book readings, and the writer, who used to work in an accounts firm, was recently able to move home to Ireland. Yet the 38-year-old former accounts clerk denies being famous, and says she is never recognised.
I meet Marian at her spacious Victorian house in Dun Laoghaire. Her husband of six years, Tony, shows me into the gloriously bright sitting room; a riot of colour with yellow walls, and a mixture of green and purple furnishings.
Marian looks wonderful. Her purple patterned top shows off her lustrous black hair to perfection, but when I admire her style she is delighted and surprised.
While she mightn't enjoy clothes shopping, she has an obsession with shoes.
The house is full of beautiful, treasured objects. There are several exotically unusual mirrors; a Buddha sits on an oriental chest and bejewelled lions from Thailand guard the stairs. Even the large turquoise cups we drink our coffee from are works of art with their fish motifs, Marian runs off to show me a plate she saw in a second-hand shop and 'had to have.'
Writing in Bed
Marian has just had a collection of articles and short stories she's written over the years published, most of which first appear in Irish Tatler magazine. The book title is "Under the Duvet" because Marian likes to write from her bed with her laptop balanced on a pillow. The room in question has a fantastic view of the garden. There's a pagoda in the corner, along with palm trees, their leaves turning from green to red and gold - a sight which is no doubt an inspiration to Marian as she begins works on her sixth novel.
The eldest of five children, it's obvious from her writing that Marian's family is important to her.
"I like wrting about the dynamics of families because theyare so symbiotically attachd to each other. My family are my favorite people to be with but I suppose we bicker. I love them so much but nobody can annoyt you like they do"
When Marian began to write, she was inspired by the early novels of Jilly Cooper, "I read them and thought I'd do an Irish one," she says. "The ones like Harriet and Emily are lovely warm books. They have their bad moments but they're such believable characters, warm, liable and funny," and she writes about romance beautifully, and not in clichés.
With her breathless humour and honesty, it's no surprise that Marian has been compared to her role model. "I can't not write comedy," she says. "If I'm trying to write seriously, sooner or later it leads back to humour. Comedy is the greatest sugar. It sweetens the pain."
Yet in life, she says it's her younger sister who gets everyone laughing. "I'm never the life and soul of the party, and I think I do disappoint people because they've read the books and they think I'm going to be one-living all the time. And actually there's a very serious and melancholic side to me, and it leaks into the writing, underpinning it."
The agony of an alcoholic
Marian has explored the subject of addiction in her fiction. In Under the Duvet she writes a moving account of her own personal battle with alcoholism. "I wrote it because so many people have written about it accurately," she says.
"I wanted to show it as it is. The stigma, shame and secrecy around it makes it an awful lot harder for people to get help. It's a horrible ugly disease that affects not just the alcoholic but those around them. No doubt people will be shocked, but I think there's a need to talk about it."
Marian believes that it's particularly hard for women to admit to alcoholism.
"Irish men with drinking problems are treated affectionately," she says."It's 'ah poor devil, he's gone to the drink.' But Irish women are still expected to be beyond reproach. And it makes it so hard."
When Marian finally beat her addiction she felt renewed. Many of her old friends had given up on her, but meeting people in recovery was refreshing."Life seemed so fresh and new and honest and clean," she says of that time. And it was then, in London, that she began to write.
"Once I started it was like Pandora's Box had been opened. I never thought about what was going to happen. If I had I would have been daunted 'cause I hadn't a clue what I was doing."
Men as the enemy
Around the same time Marian met her future husband, Tony. "I met him through a friend and I had no romantic interest in him at first," she says.
"We'd go to the pictures which I never did when I was drinking. It seemed to be summer for ages, and we'd walk on Hampstead Heath. It snuck up on me and when it did I was so sure."
She says it was immediately different to her previous relationships because they are kind to each other and don't play games.
"We're on each other's side. There are no secrets and that's comforting. I used to think of men as the enemy."
The couple lead a quiet life. They enjoy reading, walking, and going to restaurants but never pubs. Marian never drinks now, and doesn't find it too tough. She leaves parties at the stage that everyone is telling a story for the third time round.
"There's a great freedom in knowing that I can't have even one drink," she says, comparing her problem with someone who has an eating disorder. "That would be much harder because you have to engage with the object of your obsession constantly." "Or we have been known to put one from the freezer into the oven," she says.
Neither Tony nor Marian can cook. They eat a lot of fruit and salads, and when friends come round they order in a pizza.
The money she's earned from her books has given her the freedom to write full-time, and comfort in the knowledge that if anything happened to her family or friends she could help them out financially. Her main extravagance to date has been her lime green Beetle, complete with a nodding dog and pink fluffy dice.
Breaks from the norm
The couple's taste in holiday is as exotically unusual as their taste in décor. They find traditionally beautiful places like Paris and Barcelona a bit tame. "I know people think I'm nuts but I would rather see ugly interesting things than a beautiful cliché," she says, admitting that in Prague, where her brother lives, she takes buses to the ugly suburbs in order to learn about the city.
"I was on a holiday programme and they were surprised when I chose Estonia," she says. And she adored Vietnam."It's preserved in a time warp because of the American sanctions, with no neon or McDonald's."
This zeal for truth extends to Marian's writing. She writes from the inside out, and won't let a book go until she has personally felt everything that her characters experience. She always fancies her male characters, and the women are often people she might be in a parallel universe.
I admire Catherine in Last Chance Saloon because she's very much in control of her work, her hair and her life. I'm the total opposite. I'm chaotic and too open."
She enjoyed creating Lisa in Suchi for Beginners. "She follows her instincts even when she knows that she's going to upset somebody, or what she's doing is wrong. It was great to write."
Marian hasn't let her money, or success, go to her head. She exudes friendliness and warmth, and has clearly found deep happiness.
"I can't believe that I came from such despair and paralysis, and that what I do touches people," she says eyes shining with fervour. "That's the loveliest thing, to meet people around the world who say, 'I feel you were writing about me.' I always felt weird and disconnected. And now, through my writing, I'm connected and that's a wonderful feeling."