Stages and pages of a life in the arts

Lesley Kilmurray speaks with actress turned author Deirdre Purcell.

Born in 1945 Dublin to a civil servant father and waitress mother, Deirdre Purcell's legacy spans the theatrical, the airwaves, the broadsheets and the literary. As a young child, Deirdre's burning ambition was to become the first professional female jockey in Ireland. "I used to practice rising to the trot on the arm of our old settee," she muses.

Realism hit home while attending boarding school at Gortnor Abbey, after which followed a stint as a civil servant, then a job at the hub of operations for the national airline where she remained for three years. "Working at Aer Lingus was absolute unalloyed joy. We were all young and part of the same team from the MD to the cleaner." Of all her eventual careers, this is the one which claims most enjoyment category.

The first entrée into the arts world was courtesy of the Aer Lingus Musical and Dramatic Society in 1965. While auditioning as a favour to a friend, a dormant talent landed her the first of many acting roles in the Abbey Theatre. Speaking about the side-effects, the actress-turned-author is of the firm belief that, "Every single actor suffers stage fright. If they don't, they're not likely to be very good!"

After a five-year stage spell in the States, Deirdre started in RTÉ as a radio continuity announcer, before graduating to the job of radio newsreader in 1977. While her equine eagerness may not havedeirdre_purcell paid off, she became the first female anchor for the Nine O'Clock News, a role secured through a publicly advertised competition. Far from being motivated by this pioneering position, she maintains that she didn't particularly feel like she was "trailblazing" at the time. She continued to work as a current affairs TV journalist from 1979 to 1983.

Deirdre admits that she gets easily bored which is perhaps why she next moved into print journalism, first with the Irish Press and subsequently with the Sunday Tribune. She won numerous awards for her diligent coverage of breaking news, including Journalist of the Year in 1986. Speaking about her firsthand reportage of world tragedies such as the famine in Ethiopia and the floods in Bangladesh, she explains how it made her impatient, "I get mad with the type of journalism that blows small incidents out of all proportion compared with the reality of what's going on in the third world."

Of the many personalities interviewed at the time, Deirdre refuses to reveal her least favourite. She has however a panoply of preferred interviewees, among them Gary Hart, the U.S. Democratic Presidential candidate who "dirtied his bib" yet was "fascinating". She also reminisces fondly about Mike Murphy, "If you were in a bad mood but in Mike's company, within five minutes you'd be delighted with yourself!"

Thanks to her awardwinning journalism, Deirdre was shortlisted and commissioned by a publisher to ghostwrite Gay Byrne's autobiography. "I didn't really know him that well so it was an honour to be chosen," she says modestly. Asked whether this first foray into penmanship was the catalyst for her current career, she describes it more as an endurance test. "I've always felt that I couldn't sustain the stamina to fulfil a long project. The fact that I stuck with this for the two years proved to myself that I could commit to writing a novel." Despite doubting that she could produce the big bestseller which her first publisher was seeking, the persistence paid off and in 1991, A Place of Stones immediately shot to number one in the best selling ranks.

If forced to chose one of her 11 novels of which she is most proud, it would have to be Love Like Hate Adore. The rationale is one of perception. "Up to that point, I was regarded as a chicklit author. It's a horrible and unjustified label as women all write differently and not according to one supposed formula. Anyway, that's not why I wrote this book but rather it was in my head." The story about a sister's defence of her brother charged with rape was nominated for the prestigious Orange Prize. "To be in the company of the likes of Anita Shrive and Carol Shields was incredible and validation that I was more than the chicklit category."

The third Purcell novel, Falling For A Dancer, was turned into a TV mini-series, starring none other than Colin Farrell. "When Colin walked into the casting, everyone knew in an instant that this was some special talent." Deirdre takes a year on average per novel and confesses that the first thing she does when she goes to write is panic. "Every writer has different problems but mine is that I have too many choices of how to write the first sentence. It's like entering a massive bookstore piled high with options of how to begin a book."

It's well known that writer's block is an occupational hazard and this particular author gets stuck about two thirds through every time. Deirdre attributes it to her boredom threshold. "I convince myself that it's just not working. The only solution is to write through it, knowing that it's rubbish. While I inevitably discard this material, it's important to keep the writing muscles exercised." She will generally rewrite what she has previously done up to the point of blockage, make the changes and then finish the rest quickly.

In line with this, she most appreciates her job when she knows something is working. "I write to make it work. My selfmonitoring metre tells me what's good or not." What she dislikes about being an author is the 24 hour, 365 days a year nature of the craft. "A journalist can file copy and go home. An author gets no rest at all as you become obsessed with the text." Not a fan of reviews, interestingly, Deirdre has never read any of her own books once the print button is pushed. "There are series of edits, from incorporating editor suggestions (or not) to galley proofing line by line for correcting typos. When I put my pen down after this, it's the last time I see the copy."

The inspiration behind her characters and storylines are usually based on real life, and expanded through the imagination. "Novelists are lying if they say they're not writing serial autobiographies; subconscious experience, thoughts and ideas naturally have a way of entering the frame."

As a member of Drumcondra library at a raw age, reading is Deirdre's passion and favourite pastime. She acknowledges the addiction, "If I get caught up in a book, no housework, cooking, or shopping will be done until I've finished it. And then I'll want to start another straight away." So she rations herself to holiday reading.

With such a string of successes to her name, what of ambitions or plans for the future? "I've absolutely none. I've always operated on the basis that the more plans you have, the more likely they are to be thwarted. I've never been ambitious or had a five year plan." Deirdre believes that mapping out a career path for life leads one to miss possibilities that come in from the wings. Her desires are modest; if she had enough money, she would drive a motor home around the world and ensure that loved ones were secure. "The most profound thing that I've learnt, albeit late, is that my happiness depends on others' happiness." With Deirdre's memoirs, Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes, hot off the press, I certainly know what book I'll be reading next!