InterviewCecelia Ahern talks to Arminta Wallace about being pigeonholed, outselling big-name authors, finding time to write . . . and her dad
She seems always to be at, or near, the top of the Irish bestseller lists. But this month, like the fairy at the top of the Christmas books tree, Cecelia Ahern's new novel was perched at one point at number one both here and in the UK - which means that the Taoiseach's daughter is selling more books than such well-established superstars as Patricia Cornwell, Andy McNab and Terry Pratchett. Some four million books so far, according to her latest sales figures.
Add in three awards, the long-listing for next year's IMPAC prize and a couple of film contracts, and you have the makings of a publishing phenomenon. The thing is she doesn't sound like a publishing phenomenon. She sounds very young, slightly wary, and almost completely smothered by a cold. She even comes across as - can this be right for one taking the book world by storm? - shy. "Sorry," she explains, "I'm talking through my dose at the moment."
Ahern agrees that it has been an "incredible" year, but chuckles at the suggestion that she might lead a celebrity lifestyle. "No, not at all . . . I do a lot of public appearances, but they're all very low-key. Going to bookstores and doing talks and signings and things. It's not like you have screaming fans or anything."
What about those bestseller listings then? Is it exciting to be up there with Cornwell and Co - or is she, at this stage, blasé about it all?
"It's absolutely amazing. I like to not concentrate on number ones, though. Publishers and agents do. That's their thing. For me it's more the reaction. What I want is for as many people to read a book, and enjoy it, as possible. Getting to the top of the charts is a figures game. At the same time, I'm obviously looking out to see how my books are doing."
Pretty well, is the answer. Sales figures apart, Ahern has notched up three awards - an impressive batting average for a writer who has produced just three books. Her debut book, PS I Love You, won the Best Newcomer award at the British Nibbies; Where Rainbows End took the Corine award in Germany; she also won this year's Irish Post award.
PS I Love You tells the story of a young woman who, struggling to come to terms with the untimely death of her husband, is helped by the discovery of a series of notes he has left for her, to be opened at the rate of one a month, in the year after his death. Where did Ahern get the idea from? "
Ehm," she says. "This is my number one hated question because I really don't know where ideas come from. Certain people had passed away. I was in a certain mood. A combination of things sent me to the table to start writing the book."
One of those things was her interest in the way people communicate through notes, scraps of paper and text messages. "If I haven't seen somebody for a long time and I come across something that they've written to me, it's precious. When people send me things that have been written in their own handwriting I keep them. Not all of them, of course. But I think when something is written by hand, there's just something special about that."
Where Rainbows End further explores the theme of written communication - and is itself written in the form of letters, e-mails and text messages. "Well," she says, "there was no point in trying to do another PS I Love You, so I went the other way, really. It was challenging to write the second book the way I did, and it could have been a complete disaster, but I think it worked well."
If You Could See Me Now, about a boy who has an "imaginary friend", takes Ahern's interest in communication - as well as her interest in writing gentle comedy - a stage further.
IT ALSO TAKES her into that increasingly lucrative territory of books with equal parts adult and child appeal - which may explain why it has been signed up by the Disney corporation, for a musical starring the Australian actor Hugh Jackman . "I was so excited," says Ahern. "I mean, as soon as I heard the word 'Disney' I went, 'That's amazing'. Disney, you know? It's the one company everybody has heard of. And when I was told they wanted to make it a musical, I thought, 'Right, they've really got the essence of this book'. Because it's a very colourful, positive book set in a place in Kerry which I absolutely adore.
"Of course," she adds, " I don't know if the film will ever be made. This is what film companies do, isn't it? They buy books up and then they keep them. But maybe because they've put an actual name to it - Hugh Jackman - it might get made quicker. I don't know. The first book has also been bought by Warner Brothers. They've renewed the contract and a screenplay has been written, so . . ." All she can do is keep her fingers crossed. "I would like to get involved in films," she says. "I would like to write a screenplay. Not necessarily for a book that I've written - maybe just a separate story altogether; maybe that would be an easier thing to do. I would like to try that. I'd like to try all different forms of writing."
Ahern has been filed firmly under "romance fiction", but that's not how she sees herself at all. "I never set out to write romantic fiction," she says. "And I don't like the phrase 'chicklit', either. When people say 'chicklit' they're talking about books that are directed at the twentysomething, thirtysomething market. And that's me. So when I read a book, I'm - apparently - a chick? It's really quite patronising and offensive, when you think about it, to group together bestselling books in that kind of way. I'm not exactly over the moon about it. But then people say to me, 'Well, if you're not happy with the chicklit thing, what category would you put yourself in? And I don't really know. I suppose I would just say 'fiction'."
AS A READER, Ahern says, she also likes to think outside the box. In her "Books of the Year" slot for this newspaper she chose Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Christine Aziz's The Olive Readers and Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind.
"They're all books set in a reality where all the rules and the laws have been changed - where everything has been turned on its head. And I love things like that. I'm interested in possibilities. I love to hear of things that could happen, you know? That are outside the rules we're living in now. I love books that explore that other dimension. That's what I've been doing in the third book and what I'm doing again in the fourth. Just exploring. What if, imagine if, perhaps . . . you know, that kind of thing."
Can she say anything about her fourth book? "No," she says firmly. "I'm so superstitious. I'm literally halfway through it, so . . ." The pressure is on because it's due to be with the publisher in April. "I'm a good girl with my deadlines," she says. "But this year I've been away a lot. It's funny, because I thought being a writer meant you'd sit down and write. In fact it's nearly the opposite. Fifty per cent of the time you're writing; the rest of the time you're travelling and promoting. And it's absolutely worlds apart. One minute you're on your own - the next minute you're pushed out, and you're told, 'Talk to those people', and you think 'Oooh?'"
ANOTHER "OOOH" MOMENT came a couple of weeks ago, when she made it on to the long-list of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. "To be honest, I didn't even know the long-list was coming out. I was so involved in promotion that I didn't know what was going on in the rest of the world. Then somebody texted me and said, 'Look in today's Irish Times'. That was the first I heard of it. So, yeah, it was a surprise. But a very welcome one." And what if she wins it? "Ehm, I'd say there'll be world war three if I win it," she says. "No. No - it's lovely that the library in Liverpool nominated me. That's enough for me. Just to be on that list is amazing."
Now, we're going to have to talk about her dad. "OK," she agrees, without hesitation."He's really brilliant. He has read my first two books - and quite honestly, they're not his kind of thing, so I didn't expect him to read them at all. But he's really supportive. So is my mum. She has done a lot of travelling with me on my tours, and it's nice to be able to share it with somebody. And they've both always said, if you enjoy something and if you're happy, then do it. It doesn't matter what it is."
Didn't some people say, when PS I Love You was published, that she had only secured a book contract because of being the Taoiseach's daughter? "Oh, yeah," she says. "And some people are still saying it. People will always say it, because that's what people think. But I'm a pretty positive sort of person, and I've done a really good job of just blocking it all out. Sometimes you hear something and you want to say, 'Oh - look at the facts, will you?' Other times you just think, 'Oh, whatever'. But most of the time it really doesn't affect me at all. There's no point in me trying to convince people. I've never tried to prove anything to anybody - not even myself. I just like to write, and that's about it. And really it's only in this country because everywhere else, the fact that he's my dad doesn't really count for much, you know? Everywhere else, it's just another book on a bookshelf."
If You Could See Me Now is published by HarperCollins, £10.99