This Friday, Caitlin Moran plans to visually survey the audience at Dublin's National Concert Hall, where she will be on stage in conversation with Róisín Ingle as part of the International Literature Festival. Why? She needs a new pair of boots. As she told Ray D'Arcy, she's recently suffered a setback with her traditional Doc Martens and has to wear soft Crocs for the foreseeable to heal her wounds. Her mistake? She forgot to "hit them all over with a hammer for about 25 minutes after buying a new pair" like she usually does.

"If you're not very careful, the breaking in of your Doc Martens will often be you having your foot broken in by the Doc Marten."

It's 7 years since Caitlin published the incredibly successful How to Be a Woman, back when "feminism was not so much a dirty word as a forgotten word". In the intervening years, Caitlin has written How to Build a Girl and the How to Be Famous, her latest effort.

In it, she details the semi-autobiographical tale of a young woman moving to London to pursue a career in music journalism, just in time for the "ironic sexism" of the 1990s. We still have a lot to learn, Caitlin says and it's safe to assume that there are many people who want her to teach them. With success comes recognition. But Caitlin has come up with a system to keep fans at bay. And it involves her trademark grey streak.

"I've come up with a very simple open and closed sign. I always had a grey streak in my hair and I've dyed that out now. So, normally I will not have the grey streak which makes me very recognisable. I've got a glue-in hair-piece, a grey streak, that I glue onto my head when I am ready to be famous. So, if you see me out on the street and I've got the grey piece in, you can come and talk to me and tell me about your life. And if the grey piece isn't there, the shop is closed. I am not being famous right now."

Listen back to the full interview on The Ray D'Arcy Show here.

Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images