Aisling TV update, dream Christmas dinner guests and everything else you wanted to ask us
Is Piotr ever coming back?
To know a nosey hole is to love a nosey hole, so when we asked for your burning questions we were thrilled with what came in.
(Catch up with all of our previous behind the scenes posts here, from psych wards to money in publishing)
Sarah: No Matter What by Debi Gliori. It’s a picture book about two kangaroos called Large and Small. My five-year-old son loves it and asks me read it to him at bedtime at least twice a week. In the story, Large is explaining to Small that no matter what happens she’ll always love him. At the end, Small asks if love runs out when a person is “dead and gone” and Large explains that “love, like starlight, never dies”. It’s very sweet and we firmly believe that we are the Large and Small in the illustrations even though we know we’re not kangaroos. There’s a little handwritten inscription on the first page that reveals my mother-in-law originally bought it for her niece, who’s now in her 20s, but it’s since found its way to us. I’d love to write a children’s book some day so my kids might actually be impressed.
Emer: There are so many, but the one that springs immediately to mind is The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4. I first read it when I was about 11 and got it from the Scholastic book ordering club in fifth class. My teacher tried to tell me I was too young for it but I had paid for it and my mother didn’t object. In hindsight the teacher might have been right, simply because there was so much in the book that went over my head. For example, Sue Townsend had written about Adrian and Pandora, the love of his life, snogging behind The Guardian. I didn’t know what The Guardian was and I wasn’t too well up on snogging either. It didn’t really matter thought because I adored the book with its humour, satire and brilliant characters. I’ve read every Adrian Mole book more than once and Sue Townsend’s The Queen and I is another of my all time favourites. Honorable mentions to Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler and Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes.
Sarah: Without a doubt our most asked question.