Alison Jameson

Alison Jameson grew up on a farm in rural Ireland, a remote and beautiful place that continues to inspire her work. An English and History graduate of University College Dublin she worked in advertising for many years before becoming a full-time writer. She is the author of the IMPAC-nominated ‘This Man And Me’ and ‘Under My Skin’

1. Your latest book is called ‘Little Beauty’, can you tell us a bit about the book?
   ‘Little Beauty’ tells the story of Laura Quinn who lives on a remote island off the West Coast of Ireland. Her boyfriend, Martin Cronin, the lighthouse keeper refuses to marry her and so she makes the brave decision to get a job on the mainland. Laura has had a tough start in life and is something of a social misfit. She meets Finn and Audrey Campbell who are wealthy and charming and looking for a housekeeper – and as a result Laura’s world begins to change forever. Little Beauty is about loneliness and how everyone needs to connect with someone else – and it’s also about the ultimate act of love between a mother and her child.
2. To those readers of the blog that may not be familiar with you, can you tell us about yourself and your writing?
   Well… I’ve been writing novels now for almost ten years. Before that I worked in advertising for about fifteen years. It was an interesting job but I always knew that I wanted to be a writer so wrote my first book This Man and Me while still in the job. I was offered a book deal then and I’ve been writing full time ever since. Little Beauty is my third novel. I’ve also written ‘Under My Skin’ which is about life in an ad agency and was also strongly influenced by 9/11. I was born in the Irish midlands on a farm – now I live in Dublin with my husband and my five year old son.
3. What authors do you most admire?
   Annie Dillard, Claire Keegan, Elizabeth Strout, Kazuo Ishiguro and Joan Didion
4. Where do you get your ideas for your story?
   My books usually start in a place and for that reason getting out and about is very important to me – especially when I’m starting something new. Little Beauty came from my time spent on Achill island. It can be wild and raw there – especially if the weather is bad and it struck me as a beautiful but very lonely place. I began to imagine what a woman’s life might have been like there in the 1970s and the character of Laura came to me. I felt I could almost see her walking along an island road in the rain – and that’s what the first chapter is about.
5. My favourite opening line from a book is from The Lovely Bones. Do you have a favourite opening line?
   I really like the opening life from ‘Then We Came To The End’ by Joshua Ferris. “We were fractious and overpaid.” Anyone who has worked in advertising can relate.

   I also like “When you write you lay out a line of words”. from ‘The Writing Life’ by Annie Dilliard. She strips back writing to what it actually is… and it becomes more manageable as a result, something the writer is in control of.

6. What tips or advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
   Read good fiction, especially novels that have been around and have stood the test of time. You can learn a lot about writing from them. Let your ideas ‘germinate’ a bit before writing. Give them time to become something worth writing about. If they stay with you, then they’re worth committing to paper. It’s not always possible but every sentence, word, phrase, should be there for a reason…it should give something to the reader.
7. If you were stranded on a desert, what three books would you bring with you to occupy your time?
   ‘Staying Alive – Real Poems for Unreal Times'(edited by Neil Astley)
   ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ by Marcel Proust
   ‘The Swiss Family Robinson’by Johann David Wyss

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