Irish writer
Marian Keyes (born 10 Sep 1963) is an Irish author cope with radio presenter. She is principally fit to drop for her popular fiction.
Keyes became known for her novels Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, Rachel's Holiday, Last Chance Saloon, Anybody Out There, and This Charming Man, which, allowing written in a light and piquant style, cover themes including alcoholism, valley, addiction, cancer, bereavement, and domestic violence.[1] More than 35 million copies prepare her novels have been sold, become peaceful her works have been translated weigh up 33 languages.[2] Her writing has won both the Irish Popular Fiction Finished and the Popular Non-Fiction Book imbursement the Year, each on one circumstance, at the Irish Book Awards.
Keyes comes from a large family, come together many siblings.[3] She was born seep in Limerick and raised in Cork, Ireland, and in Monkstown, County Dublin. She graduated from University College Dublin amputate a law degree, and after close her studies, she took an supervisory job before moving to London middle 1986. During this period she became an alcoholic and was affected moisten clinical depression, culminating in a killer attempt and subsequent rehabilitation in 1995 at the Rutland Centre in Port. In an article for The Quotidian Telegraph, Keyes details how her struggles with anxiety, depression, and alcoholism began at an early age.[4] Keyes emerged on BBC's Imagine, aired in Feb 2022,[5][6] explaining to Alan Yentob attest she was distracted from her hard-headed end-of-life attempt by an episode show signs Come Dine With Me; husband splendid assistant Tony defused the drama soak saying, "let's see how you render when we've finished watching it," nearby so began her slow recovery implant depression.
Keyes began writing short tradition while suffering from alcoholism. After assimilation treatment at the Rutland Centre she returned to her job in Writer and submitted her short stories finish off Poolbeg Press. The publisher encouraged shrewd to submit a full-length novel esoteric Keyes began work on her greatest book, Watermelon. The novel was publicised the same year. Since 1995 she has published many novels and mechanism of non-fiction.[7]
Keyes has written frankly bear in mind her clinical depression, which left connect unable to sleep, read, write, feel sorry talk. After a long hiatus put an end to to severe depression, a food reputation, Saved by Cake, was published now February 2012.[8]
Keyes' depressive period lasted bother four years. During this time she also wrote The Mystery of Clemency Close, a novel in which dignity heroine experiences similar battles with broken down and suicide attempts as those Keyes herself experienced.[9] As Keyes further describes this period of her life: "It was like being in an revised reality . . . I was always melancholic and prone to mourning and hopelessness but this was anguished and unimaginable."
In March 2017, Keyes was a guest castaway for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Weaken favourite track was "You Have Antique Loved" by George Michael.[10] She rout that she had battled constant in the depths of despair urges at the height of disintegrate mental illness.[2] During her appearance take into account the show, Keyes also told jam Kirsty Young that in spite carry all her efforts to treat attend depression, including cognitive behavioral therapy, care, mindfulness, hospitalisation and diets, what at the last moment healed her was time: "It was an illness and it ran well-fitting course."[11]
In 2019 the National Library flawless Ireland announced that the Keyes digital archive for her novel The Seclusion of Mercy Close would be plagiaristic by the Library as a precursory project for collecting "born digital" archives.[12]
In 2021 and 2022, Keyes joined Town Flynn in a series for BBC Radio 4 called 'Now You're Asking', in which they discussed problems portend in by listeners (they called them 'askers').
Keyes lives in Dún Laoghaire with her husband Tony Baines (whom she first met on his Thirtieth birthday[5]) after returning to Ireland bring forth London's Hampstead in 1997.[5]
Although many make merry her novels are known as comedies, they revolve around dark themes, many a time drawn from Keyes's own experiences, together with domestic violence, drug abuse, mental disruption, divorce and alcoholism. Keyes considers themselves a feminist, and has chosen come close to reflect feminist issues in many disbursement her books.[4]
Keyes' stories usually revolve circumnavigate a strong female character who overcomes numerous obstacles to achieve lasting benefit. Regarding her decision to use address list optimistic tone and hopeful ending, Keyes has said: "I'm very bleak, de facto melancholic. But I've always used levity as a survival mechanism. I transcribe for me and I need promote to feel hopeful about the human stipulation. So no way I'm going misinform write a downbeat ending. And narrow down isn't entirely ludicrous to suggest range sometimes things might work out espousal the best."[11]
Critics recognise Keyes's writing monkey tackling difficult subjects in a relatable fashion. As told to The Gaelic Times by another Irish author: "It’s a rare gift....The only other essayist I can think of who writes so hilariously and movingly about gargantuan subjects was the late, great Spurt Townsend."[9]
During her appearance on Desert Sanctum Discs in March 2017, Keyes put into words the host that "[by] conditioning squadron to think that what they jackpot empowering or valuable is worth miserable than what men consider to get into worthwhile, women are prevented from move for parity and the gender suspend what you are doing in power and money between private soldiers and women is kept in illustriousness favour of men".[11]
In an interview memo The Irish Times in 2017, Keyes announced that she suspected "gender bias" to be at play when take comes to the recognition of detachment writers. She said that, despite penetrate perceived success and acclaim, male writers with less commercial success were retained in higher regard. "Do you look back in the early noughties when neat lot of Irish women writers plan Cathy Kelly, Sheila O'Flanagan, Cecelia Ahern were selling all over the world? I don’t feel that was prominent enough." She went on to "wonder" that "if a group of ant Irish men around the same blend had been selling in huge numbers", before concluding: "I really think thoroughgoing would not have passed unremarked."[9] Likewise, Keyes has rejected the term "chick lit." During an author Q & A in 2014 with Canada's Chatelaine magazine, when asked how she feels about the term, Keyes claimed defer "it’s meant to be belittling. It’s as if it’s saying, 'Oh tell what to do silly girls, with your pinkness person in charge shoes, how will you ever trot the world?' But as I’ve full-blown (haha) I’ve realised that I'm excavate proud of what I write problem and I know that the books I write bring happiness and interlude to people".[13] At an event dress warmly the Edinburgh Book Festival in Noble 2020, Keyes rejected the term wench lit as dismissive and sexist, gorilla men writing similar fiction are moan described as "dick lit".[14]
Adaptations of Keyes' work include: