Gráinne O'Hare on Belfast's literary boom: ‘It's a city of great storytellers'

Irish Times

2 days ago

Tell us about your first novel, Thirst Trap.
Thirst Trap is set in my home city of
Belfast
. It's about three best friends who live in a crumbling house-share together, still grieving the death of the fourth member of their group a year after her passing. The three women are struggling to move on from the home and the life they all shared together in their 20s. Nights spent partying have become a sort of desperate distraction from their losses and their fears about the future.
How did the story evolve as you wrote it? Did it surprise you?
The novel sort of grew up alongside me. It started as a patchwork of scenes about Belfast women just going out and about their lives in their mid-20s. The characters got older with each fresh draft of the novel, and as they – and I – approached 30, I finally worked out the story I wanted to tell. The novel isn't anywhere near the same one it would have been if I'd finished it when I was 25, and I'm glad.
What or who made you want to be a writer?
I grew up loving funny writers –
Jane Austen
and
PG Wodehouse
, Victoria Wood and French and Saunders. I started writing because I wanted to capture that kind of humour in my own words.
Are you conscious of being part of a new wave of Belfast writers such as Michael Magee, Susannah Dickey, Rachel Connolly, Róisín Lanigan, Aimee Walsh, Wendy Erskine, Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin?
Aimee Walsh and I actually met doing an MA at
Queen's [University]
; we've been great friends for over a decade and it's such a joy to see our names together as part of a Belfast literary boom. Belfast is a city of great storytellers and it's heartening to see not just a proliferation of Belfast novelists, but the variety and multitudes within everyone's work.
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You've been shortlisted for the Francis MacManus Short Story Competition and the Bridport Prize, and twice came in the top three of the Benedict Kiely Short Story Competition. Duchess is great! Can you see common themes emerging?
Looking back on all my short stories, a lot of them have themes of female friendship similar to those in my novel. I also find I write a lot more about fertility,
pregnancy
, and motherhood in short fiction (
Duchess
being one example).
Tell us about your PhD on 18th-century women's life-writing at Newcastle University.
My research is about the ways in which misogynistic tropes were used in British print media to undermine the Methodist church in the 18th century, and the ways in which Methodist women preachers used memoirs, journals and letters as a platform to argue for the legitimacy of their leadership. I'm not a Methodist but these women were so alive on the page that I wanted to dedicate my research to highlighting their lives and voices. I passed my PhD examination in May, which I'm really proud of. I got to fill in 'Dr Gráinne O'Hare' when I was connecting to free wifi in a pub last week. Delighted.
You are media editor of Criticks reviews for the British Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies. Any recommendations?
The Great is my favourite 18th century-based series, it's so funny and original. Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) would be my top film recommendations.
Which projects are you working on?
Right now, I am working on my second novel.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
I did recently fulfil a long-term dream of going to Chatsworth House, which was home to Georgiana Cavendish in the 18th century and Debo Mitford in the 20th, as well as being a possible inspiration for Austen's Pemberley.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
I always come back to this advice from
Stephen King
, when he said, 'sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position'.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
That's a no-brainer. I would legislate for a
free Palestine
.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
Naomi Booth's latest novel Raw Content is one of the best books I've read this year. A recent film I remember really enjoying was
The Outrun
–
Saoirse Ronan
can do no wrong. At the moment I'm enjoying a weekly pop-culture podcast called Everything Is Content.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
The Greggs Champagne Bar. It opens in Newcastle city centre over the Christmas period, you sit and eat a sausage roll with a knife and fork, and there is a £425 bottle of Cristal on the wine list. I would love to know who is pairing that with their steak bake.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Aimee Walsh and James Conor Patterson – great writers, great craic. Also Nancy Mitford, Carrie Fisher, Evelyn Waugh and Donna Tartt.
The best and worst things about where you live?
See above: the Greggs Champagne Bar. No, in all seriousness – Newcastle is a beautiful city and the people are great craic. The worst thing is that the crisps are not as nice as they are in Ireland. The English cannot be trusted with potatoes.
A book to make me laugh?
Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe
.
A book that might move me to tears?
I cried at I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue last year. It's a really funny book but I also found it very touching.
Thirst Trap is published by Picador