Novelist and screenwriter Anna McPartlin was giddy at the novelty of an in-person chat in the socially distanced Ryan Tubridy Show studio on Thursday.  She spoke to Ryan face-to-face about life, career and Below the Big Blue Sky, her new novel and the sequel to the best-selling The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes. After regaling him with stories of what it’s like creating a six-part TV show via Zoom, Anna turned to telling Ryan about her mother Patricia, who she says was "an extraordinary character."

Patricia separated from her husband when Anna was 5 and moved back in with Anna's grandmother. She was raring to go, Anna says, ready to try new things and start a new life. Just over a year later, Anna says her mum was diagnosed with Primary-Progressive Multiple Sclerosis:

"We started a life in Dublin and she wanted to go back and re-educate herself, you know, she had plans. She was full on for it and unapologetic about it and she was struck down with MS."

From the age of 6 to the age of 11, Anna watched her mother's disease progress and their relationship shifted with it. At the time, Anna didn't think of herself as her mum's carer, but that's how she describes it today, in a voice that spills over with warmth and laughter:

"We didn't call it that then. I mean, it was just co-habiting. 'Will you put on the spuds?' 'Yes I will mother!' You know what I mean? But yeah, I absolutely had a carer role. We cared for one another. She was, you know, she was the head and I was the body. "

There were days when Anna would come home to find her mother on the floor. She might have been there for hours, unable to stand up; the falls often accompanied by seizures. But Anna says her extraordinary mother had a way of staying calm, of paying attention to her daughter in spite of her vulnerability; and this was transformative:

"If I arrived in when she's in the middle of it, instead of her crying and screaming and being upset or whatever,  she'd just say to me 'Come on and lie down beside me and tell me about your day.' And we'd lie down together and we'd talk about the day. And then when she was able, I'd help her up."

By the time Anna was 11, Patricia needed full-time care. Anna went to live with her aunt and uncle and 5 cousins in Kenmare, where she was very happy. Patricia found the care she needed at The Royal Hospital in Donnybrook, where she died peacefully when Anna was 17. Looking back at her early childhood now, Anna says her mother never tried to cover up the realities of her illness and that this honesty helped her to cope:

"We talked about everything. I think the thing that scares children most is when adults don't talk to them. They try and hide what's going on, because they think they're not capable of understanding it. And my mum was not in the position where she was able to hide anything from me, because she needed me. And so she had to be very open and honest with me. As a result, I didn't have that fear, because I knew what was happening."

Anna says that as a writer, she relishes the darker side of things, not exclusively, but she doesn't shy away from the shade. Her books have been widely translated and are really popular in Germany and France. Anna laughed out loud as she explained to Ryan why she thinks people relate to her work:

"I think it's because I'm dark! All my book subjects are grim, you know? When I'm pitching a book to my publisher, they're like, 'Oh God, that sounds horrific!' But it's grim with laughter and joy and… but that's the thing: the subject is grim; the characters are joyful."

Anna talks about her TV writing career, her much-loved mother-in-law who inspired her writing, and her own mum's peaceful and dignified final days in the full interview with Ryan which you can listen back to here.

Anna’s new book, Below the Big Blue Sky, published by Zaffre, is available in stores and online from July 23rd.

Ruth Kennedy