Come and chat to MAGGIE O'FARRELL about Instructions For a Heatwave (and all her previous books), Weds 23rd Oct, 9-10pm

[TillyBookClub]

If youre still loath to let go of summer, our October Book of the Month keeps the temperature high. Maggie OFarrells bestseller, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, is set in London, July 1976. The Riordans are an Irish couple with three grown-up children, and as they sit sweltering in their kitchen, Robert Riordan tells his wife Gretta that he's going round the corner to buy a newspaper. He doesn't come back. The search for Robert brings the children - two estranged sisters and a brother on the brink of divorce - back home, each with different ideas as to where their father might have gone.

As always, O'Farrell captures daily life with acute observation and empathy while sustaining a gradual suspense that reveals secret histories. Another entrancing and beautifully paced novel from a truly excellent storyteller.

To find out more, go to our book of the month page, where you can also find links to video interviews, Maggie's website and to her previous Mumsnet Bookclub chat back in 2011.

Tinder Press have 50 copies to give to Mumsnetters to claim yours please go to the book of the month page. We'll post on the thread when all the copies have gone.

If you're not lucky enough to bag one of the free books, you can always get your paperback or Kindle version here.

We are thrilled that Maggie will be joining us and answering questions about INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, her writing career and her previous novels on Wednesday 23 October, 9-10pm. So please feel free to discuss the book here throughout the month, pop up any advance questions and we will see you all here, Wed 23 October.

[EmmaLove82]

Hi Maggie,
I've only just started your book but can tell I'm going to really enjoy it!
I'm only on page 44, where we are introduced to Monica.
Probably a stupid question, but I'm reading a lot about the cat!
Is there any significance to the cat or purely a vehicle/scapegoat through which Monica's feelings can be aired?

Thanks!

[MaggieOFarrell]

@alicethecactus

Have just started reading this, enjoying it v much so far! I read The First Hand that Held Mine (which was a lovely but heartbreaking!) and I notice that you've set Instructions for a Heatwave in a similar area - what is it about that area of North London for you?

Hello Alice, or should I call you Cactus?

North London? Well, I lived there for longer than I've lived anywhere. Fifteen years, or thereabouts. I live in Edinburgh now but still spend a lot of time there. Writing about it sometimes feels like a way of being there, even when I'm not. If that makes any sense.

M

[edukation]

Hi Maggie
I'm just in the middle of IFAH and am really enjoying it. I recently finished The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which I thought was absolutely brilliant - what happened at the end was so frustrating but totally understandable. Did you see Esme as a mentally ill person or a completely normal person with experiences that led to her behaving in the way she did? And in general do you find it hard to be upbeat in your day to day life when you are writing about distressing events and inhabiting distressed characters' minds?

[MaggieOFarrell]

@decaffwithcream

You are one of the few authors whose books I get hold of as soon as they are published.

In light of the teething baby and sickly 4 year old, I should be hesitant to ask this question, but I would love to know if you are working on another book?

Hope you all get a good nights sleep.

I'm hoping that tonight is the night for sleep. Surely after nine bad nights, the baby is due a good one?

Doesn't always work like that, though, does it?

Another book: yes, I have started one. I'm about 35,000 words in (although I don't often use my word count function as it puts me off). I'm not a superstitious person, generally, but I am superstitious about discussing a book I haven't finished. I always feel that talking about it will somehow drain away the urge to write it. Apologies if that sound cagey. I'm enjoying the writing, so far, and I have my playlist organised, which is always a sign that things are moving along. I went to talk to an auction house the other day as research, which was fascinating...

M

[silverdragonfly]

Hello Maggie. I haven't read your latest book yet, but I will. I have read all the others and enjoyed them all.

You are one of a couple of authors whose work I love and who have inspired me to start writing. After You'd Gone is one of the most moving novels I have read, one of few I've read more than twice. I think you find the perfect balance between beautiful writing and gripping plot. It's what I hope to achieve.

Oh, and the advice about beginnings is timely and comforting (as I looked today at the beginning of my 120,000 word draft and realised I hate it - again!)

Actually, I do have a question - if you are still reading after all that. Is writing a pleasure for you or has it become just a job? For me, its a guilty pleasure, an escape from day to day life into the world of my characters. Has that changed for you or do you still love it?

[MaggieOFarrell]

@ShowOfBloodyStumps

Can you tell me how and when you find the time to write with a sickly 4 year old and a teething baby? I'm trying to finish my first (possibly last) novel at the moment and the only time I have free is when the sickly 6 year old (seriously germs, you've had a warm welcome now bugger off) and teething 2yr old are in bed and somehow after a whole day of child wrangling, the lure of a piece of shortbread and an earl grey is much stronger than the typewriter. Really, to write well I need utter solitude. Please tell me that farming the 2yr old off to grandparents/preschool for an afternoon or two is perfectly legitimate when I plan to spend my time writing instead of tackling the laundry. If you say it's true I can tell my husband/parents/guilty conscience it's fine because Maggie said so.

You really are one of my favourite writers (I think I was all fangirly earlier in the thread) and I am always so thrilled to see you have a new book out. You do succinct psychologically accurate drawing of women my age very well.

Hello again Stumps,

Finding the time to write is not easy. But you will. Starting is often the hardest part. I think if tiredness and the lure of tea threaten, then you might need to say to yourself that you will just sit at your desk for half an hour. Sometimes ringfencing off some time is all that is required to get going. I often say I'll do half an hour and then suddenly it's 2am. Also, remind yourself that words on the page are not the only sign of 'writing'. Often what you need is to think uninterrupted, to smooth out some knotty problem with the book. Time isn't the only problem, as you'll know. It's often more a question of headspace and quiet.

As for time with grandparents, bring it on. They are happy, the baby's happy, you're happy. It's all good.

Good luck.

M

[TillyBookClub]

'If the book shows anything, it shows that there are no instructions. All instructions are useless: you have to find your own way.'

This could also sum up my view on motherhood too. Couldn't have put it better.

I'd love to sneak in an extra question for Maggie:

I heard Zadie Smith on Desert Island Discs the other week talking about how she becomes less and less certain of things as she gets older, and therefore reading her younger novels can make her feel a bit odd, because they are full of aphorisms. Do you find yourself looking back at your earlier novels and thinking you are very different now? And do you think motherhood plays a big part in that?

[MaggieOFarrell]

@Theimpossiblegirl

I'm nearly finished and am really enjoying it, thank you. This is the first of your books I have read but will not be the last.

The characters are so interesting and I love how they are revealed through the story, flaws and all.

Gretta reminds me of DH's Irish Grandmother, who I believe never married his grandfather when they ran away to England from Ireland in the forties, but no-one else seemed to realise so I've kept quiet.

Do you base your characters on real people? They seem incredibly alive to me.

Fascinating about your DH's grandmother. I wonder why they never tied the knot? There must be some murky reason behind that ...

I don't generally use real people. I'm not sure how that would work. I think all fiction is a patchwork of things you borrow, things you lift from real life and others you simply make up. I did meet a woman at a knitting stall in Connemara a few years ago who told me her life story within two minutes of our meeting. She had been in London in the 1950s and worked at a Lyon's Corner House, just as Gretta does. There is a fair bit of her in Gretta. I bought a hat off her. It's rather itchy so I don't wear it much. But, really, it was the least I could do.

M

[FaddyPeony]

I'm going to sneak in a follow-up to my question Maggie which I know is verboten but hopefully I won't be banned ...

In your reply to my Q about the domestic, all of the authors you mentioned are male and universally celebrated. But I still feel that there is sheer indifference/meh in a big part of the literary establishment when women writers document the domestic (which is to say, life). I think particularly of the charge levelled by the Orange Prize judges a few years back about there being too much of the domestic in many of the novels up for consideration (am paraphrasing).

I do get a sense that this attitude is changing as writers like Alice Munro and Marylinne Robinson are more widely read and understood. I'd love to know, though - have you ever come up against this attitude from someone famous who should really know better?

[MaggieOFarrell]

@TheOldestCat

Hallo Maggie. I've loved all of your books, but After You'd Gone remains my favourite and one of the few novels to make me cry on the tube, darn you. Have read it so many times.

I don't have a question; just wanted to say hello! Hope the poorly and teething ones are better soon.

Well, thank you. Hello back.

[decaffwithcream]

Delighted there is another book in the works, I don't need to know what it's about at all. I found all your novels quite different from each other, especially the most recent ones, and I've thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

[meerschweinchen]

Hi Maggie, I love all your novels. After you'd gone was the first I read, and in many ways is still my favourite. Do you have a favorite, or one that means the most to you?

[haverer]

Hi Maggie I don't have a question; I just want to tell you how much have enjoyed all of your novels. I am always very moved by your descriptions of the departures and reunions - especially mothers and children. The way Gretta grabs Aoife when she comes home was very powerful. (I love the character of Aoife, btw.)

[MaggieOFarrell]

@Jenijena

I enjoyed IFAH and am intrigued - what came first, the ideas for the characters, or the story of the missing father? The latter seemed almost incidental to the (very well written and enjoyable) story of the children & wife.

Not insulting at all!

When I started the book, I had the choice of writing about the siblings or about the father and his reasons for disappearance. It was a deliberate decision to focus the novel on the relationships between the grown-up siblings. It seemed to me that Robert/Ronan is the kind of man who wouldn't explain himself even when he returns. I don't even think Gretta would expect him to. They are the kind of people who would just brush it off, never speak of it and carry on as before. Meanwhile, all that remains unsaid still seethes between them. I wanted the book to reflect this. I think we forget that the urge to get everything out in the open is a relatively modern one: a few generations ago, the done thing was to not mention the unsayable. To keep it hidden. To hope it goes away.
M

[cherrytomato40]

I'm too befuddled to think of an intelligent question as I'm typing one-handed from a toddler bed with an arm round a poorly 3 year old... just wanted to echo what someone else said that you are one of the few authors whose books I will always rush out and buy as soon as they are released. The Hand That First Held Mine was just perfect.

Now that you have children, would you ever write a children's book?

[Bicnod]

Hello Maggie - I have read all your books :)

The Hand That First Held Mine really touched me - I read it shortly after having my first child and some parts of it felt like you had somehow crawled inside my mind and written down (far more eloquently than I ever could of course) all the tangled up emotions I was experiencing.

It made my husband cry too (but don't tell him I told you).

I don't have a question, I just wanted to say I think you're brilliant and can't wait to read your new book.

[overthemill]

Maggie, I love your novels and along with Anne Tyler and Carol Shields (now sadly no longer with us), I buy them full price hot off the press, never give them away or lend them and eagerly look out for news of when the next one is due! AYG makes me weep. Still, years after reading it. Huge grief filled sobs.

How can you be so brilliant at describing the detail of the domestic and emotional landscape of our lives? It is the thing that in general, only women can do (not wholly true I know but I'm sticking to it) and which keeps me going.

IFAH I loved because I know the part of N London and also was 18 in 1976

Thank you! sorry to be such a fan...

[overthemill]

'When I started the book, I had the choice of writing about the siblings or about the father and his reasons for disappearance. It was a deliberate decision to focus the novel on the relationships between the grown-up siblings'
that's the female response isn't it? The male authors would have done the mystery whereas you unravel the personal

[Bicnod]

In fact, this thread has prompted me to order IFAH for October half-term reading. Hurrah

[cracklingrosie]

Hello Maggie, I don't have a question to ask. I just wanted to say I have enjoyed all your novels and my favourite character in IFAH is Aoife. Her character was so powerful and the description of her sitting at the same infant desk at school as her peers move on and she is left behind to struggle and conceal was heart breaking. My favourite novel is The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox which I have re-read several times and always leave me in tears at the injustice of her situation.

[MaggieOFarrell]

@EmmaLove82

Hi Maggie,
I've only just started your book but can tell I'm going to really enjoy it!
I'm only on page 44, where we are introduced to Monica.
Probably a stupid question, but I'm reading a lot about the cat!
Is there any significance to the cat or purely a vehicle/scapegoat through which Monica's feelings can be aired?

Thanks!

The cat is the one character I've lifted from life: when I wrote those scenes, my cat Malachy had just died, and he was a rather unusual rescue cat.

I wrote him in because I wanted to show how Monica is deceiving everyone around her and most of all herself. I was interested in the kind of person who can persuade herself that she feels one way when, in reality, she feels the opposite. The cat is a symbol of death and also of culpability. Monica is convinced she loathes him but of course she doesn't; she is forced to be there when he is put to sleep. She doesn't want to be responsible for all this but she is. The scene doesn't just cover the cat's death; all her reluctant emotions for the cat are really for the baby.

Hope that makes sense.

M

[AmyMumsnet]

Lots of us at MNHQ loved the book but we were wondering what happens to each of the siblings. Would you ever write a sequel or will we just have to use our imagination?!

[MaggieOFarrell]

@nevergoogle

Good evening Maggie,
I'd like to know which of your novels is your favourite.

For me, it's the vanishing act of esme lennox. I particularly liked the ending.

I'm sorry but IFAH didn't do it for me. I liked the characters and their dialogue was brilliant but the plot just didn't twist like I would have hoped.

What's next?

I don't have a favourite - I never could. They all mean different things to me and all represent very different stages of my life.

Actually, scratch that: my favourite of my books is always the one I haven't yet started. It's still perfect and flawless in my head.

M

[Mintie190]

I'm too late to ask a question but I loved The Hand that First Held Mine. Lexie is one of my favourite female characters ever. Your description of her thoughts when she was you know what (don't want to be a spoiler) summed up every maternal feeling I have. I think you are a wonderful story teller and I hope that if you ever are struggling to finish a book that you will read these posts and know that so many of us are waiting for your next instalment!

[EmmaLove82]

That makes perfect sense!
Wonderful! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question.
Sorry to hear about your cat.
Looking forward to finishing the book.
Many thanks, Emma