"I don't want to talk about that Róisín, I don't want to have a critique," laughed Ann Ingle on The Ray D'Arcy Show, in the way only a mother could talk to a daughter on live radio. "It's a praise, not a critique!" countered Roísín, speaking of her mother's sparse writing style full of short sentences with "a lovely turn of phrase." Listeners will be very familiar with Róisín's writing and broadcasting work and following in her footsteps, mum Ann has put pen to paper and is making a name in the literary circles herself.
Why didn't Ann start her writing career sooner? "I was busy!" she said, and with 8 children, it's no surprise that she had her hands full. Ann had been honing her skills in a writer's group and 'Ross O'Carroll Kelly' author Paul Howard suggested she should ghostwrite a memoir of the rally driver and pioneer Rosemary Smith.
"The main reason that Paul wanted me is because I'm the same age as her you see… I would understand what she as saying like when he mentioned to me that she'd had a little thing with Adam Faith, I mean lots of people wouldn't know who Adam Faith was!"
Initially, Ann was hesitant but on meeting the racing legend, she found they had common ground and felt like the partnership would be a success.
"She's so beautiful, tall and glamorous. She then showed pictures of herself with Bob Hope and Maureen O'Hara and I was fascinated just listening to her… We just got on and she said, 'I think we can do it.'"
Do it they did, even bagging a nomination for Sports Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.
Click here to listen to Ann and Róisín's interview in full.