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| Interview with Cathy Kelly by Debbie Taylor I SAW Cathy Kelly at the airport in Newcastle. Then there she was again when my plane landed at Dublin. Not in person, you understand, but as the current NOB (Number One Bestseller). Kelly's latest blockbuster, Someone Like You (lilac cover, smiling brunette in tracksuit, weighing in at 558 pages), has pushed the queen of Irish pensmiths, Maeve Binchy, into second place, slightly ahead of Dublin newcomer Marion Keyes. ‘The broadsheets never actually review our books,’ commented the corporeal Cathy Kelly later over lunch. ‘But they like to run features about the three of us, with headlines like “Making a million - three Irish novelists show how it’s done”.’ (She’s not kidding. There are big bucks to be made from the airport novel.) I had tracked Kelly down via her agent Ali Gunn, who specialises in what she calls ‘very very commercial women’s fiction’. I wanted to interview a top-of-the-heap mass-market novelist to find out what kind of writing generates those seven-figure sales. ‘Go for Cathy,’ she advised at once. ‘She’s one of those really hard-working authors, who’ve come up the hard way, through journalism.’ When I arrive at the Berkeley Court Hotel (scene of several rather more intimate rendezvous in her novels), Kelly’s surrounded by burly male journalists. There’s a convention of sports writers going on and the foyer is heaving with natty leather jackets. She is small and blonde in a tailored black trousersuit, pink pashmina, chunky rings and a wide gold choker (‘adorably chic’ is the term she might have used). She’s extremely pretty with the huge eyes, round cheeks and perky physique you associate with children’s TV presenters. But her dolly-girl appearance has proved a dubious asset. ‘I had to fight tooth and nail to keep my position… For the whole interview, read Issue 8 » Subscribe! Go to » Cathy Kelly's Method |
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For more on CATHY KELLY, go to www.cathy-kelly.com
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