The Past Revisited
While broadcaster and novelist Rachael English doesn’t normally write historical fiction, she found herself gripped by archive material dating from the famine. She talks to Carissa Casey about the inspiration for her new book The Letter Home.
We’re as used to hearing her voice on Radio One’s Morning Ireland, as we are to reading her beautifully crafted novels. The latest, The Letter Home, came about after discovering the wealth of famine archives available on the Clare County Library website.
“I was looking for something else,” she says. “ Then I came across their genealogy page and I hadn’t realised just how much information there was - first-hand information, actual records that are easy to access.”
So she spent several hours scrolling through the records and found herself transfixed. “I would defy most people to read some of those records without getting quite emotional about them,” she says. “I came across a couple of things in particular, one of which was a list of the death records from the workhouse in Kilrush from 1850 to 1851. There are just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of names. Just taking the surname McMahon, there were 64 dead McMahons in Kilrush workhouse in one year.”
The experience stayed with her and lies at the heart of her latest novel. One part is set during the famine years and centres on Bridget, a young mother making her way to America. Then we see how two modern day women react to learning and understanding more of that terrible time in Irish history.
She admits that she found writing Bridget’s story difficult. “I did find myself having to bring out the tissues. I mean, it’s so immensely sad. It’s so beyond our understanding, what was done to these people. And it’s hard not to be angry about it either. All those needless deaths. The sheer volume of children who died from perfectly preventable deaths - dysentery and hunger. I did find it quite upsetting at times.
“It helped that the novel also had a contemporary setting, with present day characters forced to grapple with what happened in the past, what it meant for their families, and what it meant for their area. It was almost like an educational project as well because I was astonished by how little I knew. One of the characters says that near the start of the book; most of us only know the basic facts. Of all the dark stuff you learned at school, it’s the one period that did really stand out, that never ever left you.”
The story she brings to life sheds new light on a subject that many Irish people find difficult to deal with to this day. As she points out, the famine wasn’t just about men in rooms making decisions. It was also about the terrible toll it took on ordinary people.
Her publisher was supportive of the novel’s premise, despite the painful and depressing subject matter, rightly so.
The book is currently top of the best-seller list. And Rachael has discovered that Irish people are more than ready to talk about the famine. “I find it is one of those subjects that once you start talking about it, you could be there all day. People go ‘you know what I heard’ about such and such. It’s still with us.” The pandemic helped with the writing of the book, and writing the book helped with the pandemic, she says.
“I did have a bit more time because you couldn’t go anywhere. The book was a bit of a saviour, to have this big ongoing project that takes your head to another place.”
She has learned to write when she can - 10 minutes here and there is necessary. She doesn’t need any rituals or sacred space, she’ll happily tap out stuff on her phone. “You learn to manage like that,” she says.
“What I would find difficult sometimes is just getting the headspace. If I’m switching from one task to another, I feel as though there just isn’t enough room in my head.”
She spent the first six months of last year presenting from her kitchen table. She adapted but realised that she needs human company as well. “I always thought I was a bit anti-social until I was forced into being antisocial and then I realised, ‘Oh no, perhaps I’m not anti-social at all’. I was out Saturday night, and it was just so lovely to speak to so many people. It was just lovely to see all the life around the place again, to see people dressed up.”
The Letter Home by Rachael English is published by Hachette Books Ireland and is out now, €18.99
Her main plan is to visit her mother in England, whom she hasn’t seen in a while. Rachael was born in Lincolnshire where her mother is from but grew up in Shannon, County Clare. Aside from her broadcasting commitments (she now works part-time), she has written five novels, the sixth being The Letter Home.
She’s currently working on another novel. Surprisingly, she still doesn’t find her fiction writing is getting any easier.
If anything, she says, she’s a bit more uptight about it “because you know a bit more”. But her latest book is clearly close to her heart. “I wouldn’t say that even if it never got published I would have liked the experience because that’s not true. But the best part about it was the writing of it, if you know what I mean. I really did get lost during the two long lockdowns, in particular. I was so lucky to have it.”
The Letter Home by Rachael English is published by Hachette Books Ireland and is out now, €18.99
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