Autobiography:'But I truly do hate reading that 60 is the new 50. It is not. It is 60," writes Deirdre Purcell in her autobiography, Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes. Not one to bemoan the fact that "personal choices are diminishing with bewildering rapidity", she opts, instead, to "leave something behind" with this book.
If you are looking for shock revelations about RTÉ, the Sunday Tribune under Vincent Browne, or the Abbey, you won't find them here. Deirdre Purcell is open about the fact that she does not like to compromise others. Of her second husband, Kevin Healy, she writes: " . . . Kevin has a former wife and three children from their marriage. They do not deserve to be placed in a public spotlight and it won't be inflicted on them". The picture she draws of her first marriage, in her mid-20s to a 19-year-old American actor, is lightly sketched, as is the personal life of her one sibling - her brother Declan - and her sons, Adrian and Simon.
What we do get is an evocative picture of a bygone Ireland and a feel for how the views of society at a particular time can impact strongly on the individual. In the 1950s, Purcell suffered at the hands of a teacher who made it her business to impart the then societal belief that children should not get above their station. This had a lasting effect on her confidence. At home, love was not readily expressed. A touching passage details how, returning from boarding school by train for Christmas, Purcell, on seeing her family on the platform straining to catch sight of her, realised for the first time that they loved her. And that the feeling was mutual.
Convent school innocence was interrupted when a nun imparted the facts of life to a 17-year-old Purcell while she "patted and tidied" Crunchies and Curly Wurlys in the tuck shop. Though to get through it, the nun pretended that the teenager was a woman of the world already privy to the details. Purcell played along but the shock was enormous.
In that Ireland, people saved for what they wanted. It took Purcell 16 weeks to acquire her first pair of stilettos, which she wore until the soles were holed. But that Ireland was also a place of begrudgery and small- mindedness and this was instrumental in the return of her first husband to the United States without her and their two sons. "And of course he was out of love with me," is her poignant addition.
What we learn about Deirdre Purcell is revealed mostly through her, often difficult, relationship with her parents and through her career, which was for the most part unplanned. Her job as an actress with the Abbey came about when she went to help a friend audition for a part. Her position as continuity announcer with RTÉ was applied for because money was tight. She was headhunted by the Sunday Tribune. Becoming a fiction writer was a publisher's suggestion. Regardless of how these opportunities arose, Purcell jumped at each new challenge, working hard to fulfil it. And yet one feels that the author of 11 novels still isn't fully satisfied with all that she has achieved. We have not heard the last of Deirdre Purcell.
This is a gentle documentation of a full life, at times poignant, at times amusing, never self-congratulatory.
Denise Deegan is a novelist and freelance journalist. Her third novel, Love Comes Tumbling, will be published in paperback in April by Penguin, followed by her fourth novel, in September, from Penguin Ireland
Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes By Deirdre Purcell Hodder Headline Ireland, 377pp. €13.99