We went off on an extended family outing to see the house that features in this book a couple of weeks ago. The house is open to the public a couple of times a year. My mother-in-law had read the book and enjoyed it and lent it out to most of us. We were curious. The author met us on the doorstep and showed us around. She was a delightful hostess but it was odd to be in her house and to know so much about her life. Not just the outer parts but her inner thinking also and the really upsetting things as well. I would have thought that it isn’t much fun for her either but she seemed quite cheerful. Weird but recommended, particularly, if you liked the book.
Incidentally, this being Ireland, it turned out that my mother-in-law had known the author’s mother’s parents well and lived next door to her editor’s aunt with whom the author had dined only the other day; my brother-in-law had worked with a friend of hers who had been to dinner the previous evening; and she and my husband had college friends in common.
