Author Marian Keyes on her travels to chilly locations and escapades around the world
Bestselling Irish novelist Marian Keyes, 56 – who has brought us love, laughter and all matters of the heart in her many novels, including Watermelon, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, This Charming Man and The Break – has travelled the world on book tours, charity events and speaking engagements.
Her latest novel Grown Ups follows the trials and tribulations of an extended and blended family, featuring some fabulous locations in Ireland, home to the acclaimed author, who lives near Dublin with her husband, Tony Baines.
Here, she reveals her love of chilly locations and her escapades around the world…
You’ve been to Lapland recently – what was that like?
“Oh my God, the air is so pure, there are so many trees, you feel like you’re in the middle of a huge forest that goes on forever. The temperature wasn’t even that cold. It was minus one.
“We stayed in these beautiful wood-lined little chalets. There was a church made of ice, there were huskies and reindeer, and we met Santa Claus. That was the best bit, properly magical.”
Where are you off to next?
“My mother, with her new lease of life, decided that she wanted to go on a cruise. She and Dad had booked a cruise to Norway just before he got too sick to leave home [he died in December 2018], so we are going up the Norwegian fjords with my two sisters in May.
“I love cruises. You see new things every day. I haven’t been on one of those giant cruise ships where there’s like 48 cinemas and stuff like that, but I was working, doing talks on the Queen Mary last February. We went to Thailand and Malaysia and ended up in Hong Kong. Actually, that was almost the 48 cinemas. It was amazing. The glamour, oh my God!
“I love that you go to a new country every day and then you wake up and it’s different.”
Have you ever had any travel disasters?
“Millions! I was going to Ethiopia to write about an Irish charity called Concern and I’d packed my bags with all kinds of treats and food to bring for the people who worked there.
“We arrived at Addis Ababa airport and it was like a cow barn. The luggage carousel wasn’t a carousel because it didn’t work. Anyway, our bags didn’t come. Our malaria tablets were in the bag. We had nothing except the clothes we stood up in.
“The next flight wasn’t due in for two days and by then, we were going to be down in the south of the country. But you know, it was kind of wonderful, in that we had to go out in the market and buy clothes and stuff.
“This was about 15 years ago when they didn’t have supermarkets or anything like that, so there was nowhere to go to buy toothpaste or toothbrushes. We cannot conceive of that level of an undeveloped country. But it was a great adventure, although it didn’t feel like that initially.”
What’s your earliest memory of being on holiday as a child?
“My mother is from County Clare and there’s a place there called Lahinch, on the Atlantic, which is so incredibly beautiful. It has one of the most beautiful beaches in the world and proper waves.
“We used to go there for a couple of weeks a year. We’d stay with my granny. It seemed like the sun was always shining and the sea was always blue. There were ice-creams, buckets and spades and runs along the beach to get warm after the swim. It was just gorgeous. We still all go there, my sisters and I.”
Favourite cities?
“Recently, I went to Amsterdam to write an article about it. I’d only ever been there for work before, and this time, I had the time to see it. It’s so beautiful. Everything I looked at during those 48 hours was exquisite. It was balm to my eyes.
“I like cold places like Helsinki. Not that many people go there. It’s different, and when you drive just outside Helsinki, it’s forest. We drove to this beautiful town called Porvoo, a couple of hours outside Helsinki, and it’s got all these gorgeous buildings.”
Are you early or late to the airport?
“Himself [her husband, Tony Baines] doesn’t like to be frisked, so prefers to get there early. I really resent any time wasted at the airport, but I’ll do it for him. If I had my way, I’d cut it so fine. It’s such dead time and I think they do it deliberately, just to make us spend money.”
Staycation or far-flung destination?
“I’m a fan of far-flung. I’d love to go to India. In the summer, I went to Uzbekistan and that was incredibly exotic.”
Train travel, air travel or road trip?
“Oh, train! It’s the best, because you can get up and move around and go to the loo, and you’re passing countryside, you’re not in traffic jams. I love train travel.”
Beach break or city break?
“City. I am not a beach person, to put it mildly. I find it so boring. I hate the sun, then if you put on suntan lotion, you’re covered in sand. It’s just grim.”
Have you ever been on holiday on your own?
“Yes, but it was a long time ago. I went to the Cyclades in Greece for a week. It wasn’t much fun being on my own, but I would go away for a couple of nights.
“Three years ago, I was in Istanbul and it was interesting walking around that city as an unaccompanied woman, both good and bad.
“It gave me a chance to get to know a different part of myself, that I can be tough and stand up to men and unwanted advances, and can be pleasant about it. And I could decide where I wanted to go without having to consult anyone.
“Tony goes away a lot mountain climbing, and he doesn’t mean this in any derogatory way, but he says it’s so nice sometimes to only have to think about himself. It’s nice to have that time to be completely autonomous.”
Favourite travelling companion?
“I love going on holiday with my husband, because he’s just so interesting and we like so much of the same things. He’ll persuade me to try something I wouldn’t have done if I’d been there with somebody else.
“I’m no fan of the opera or classical music, but when we were in Sydney, Australia, there was a Shostakovich thing on in the Sydney Opera House. Tony wanted to go and I went – and I loved it.”
Grown Ups by Marian Keyes is published by Michael Joseph, priced £20. Available now.
PUCTURE: Dean Chalkley/PA
