Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of
My Husband's Wives Blog Hop
I am delighted to welcome the author Faith Hogan who is sharing her inspiration for Carlinville, Evie's home in My Husband's Wives...
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| Photo by kind permission of the author |
Carlinville – The Silent
Character!
My debut novel – My Husband’s
Wives is a book firmly set in Irish soil. The action of the novel takes place
in Dublin, and while it’s not the Dublin of Roddy Doyle or Brendan Beehan, it
is the Dublin of today. For the most part, it’s middle class suburbia, the home
of average people going about ordinary lives.
Evie Considine lives in an old
Victorian house, set high in the hills of Howth. Anyone who knows Dublin will
know how strikingly beautiful Howth is. From its headland on a clear day, you
can see across the Irish Sea into Wales. Along the Dublin coastline, you can
pick out the Poolbeg towers, occasional sandy coves and at night, the winking
lights of a city steeped in literary tradition. Carlinville, Evie’s home, has
retained the beauty of its past, despite Evie’s indifference. It is a place
that cries out to be filled with people, smell of beeswax and gleam in the full
sun of care and love; it is a house that yearns to be a home.
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This image of Frewin House is used with the kind permission of its owners and like Carlinville House, it too is a fine example of Irish Victorian architecture. |
With Queen Victoria, came a new
kind of living. The elite sought to make a mark of their own and built houses
like the one featured here. The architecture was softer and more feminine than
its predecessors were. It is also less widespread in our capital city than the
great red squares of the Georgians. Dublin
city is known mostly for its great Georgian squares. Today, tall, redbrick
identical houses, built to a perfect precision in the 1700’s are being opened
up around the city, fetching prices now that would have made their original
owners blush. Very many have seen the highs and lows of Irish society,
beginning as homes to the well to do, but eventually, when they became
unfashionable being relegated to the poor. Tenement living in Dublin was at its
height in the early twentieth century. By 1912, Dublin had the worst housing
conditions in the UK, the wealthy had fled the city centre to set up home in
the suburbs and the grand houses of the Georgians became little more than
squats with high rents. Huge families living to a room or two, with little in
the way of basic sanitary provisions led quickly to the disintegration of those
once beautiful squares. The nineteen eighties saw a revival of the squares, but
the restoration is slow and expensive, so still there are many Georgian houses
in danger of disappearance. Thankfully, the Victorian houses were lucky to have
been modish long enough and at the right time to avoid falling out of fashion
to the same extent.
Like the women in My Husband’s
Wives, Carlinville manages to come to life and its journey in the novel mirrors
that of its mistress. It has, for too long been relegated to second place,
while always providing what Paul Starr needed in life. In his death, like his
wives, it too is gifted with so much more than it expected.
While Dublin features in the novel,
it is contemporary Dublin. The liberties, although they are steeped amidst the
history of the Vikings are home to a sea of constant traffic, bijoux antique
shops and the ubiquitous coffee shops on every corner of every city of the
world.
I love Dublin, I think anyone who
visits the city, if they have a love of writers or books, will love it. There
are landmarks here that mark it apart from any other place in the world. The
city begins with the Book of Kells, a stone’s throw away, the house of The
Dead, take the dart and you will arrive out at Joyce’s Martello Tower. Every
other street has a pub, a doorway or a sculpture to mark the journey of some
writer that has touched even the darkest soul. However, My Husband’s Wives is
not a story about Dublin – it is a story about jealousy, forgiveness and
ultimately love and the truth is, that’s a universal tale. It doesn’t matter if
you live in Seattle or Surrey, Sidney or Stephenville – love is love and really
it is all we have that is worth having at the end.
Faith x
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Aria Fiction
2016
(Head of Zeus) |
A bit of Blurb about the book..
Better to have loved and lost, than never loved.
Paul Starr, Ireland's leading cardiologist dies in a car crash with a pregnant young women by his side.
United in their grief and the love of one man, four women are thrown together in an attempt to come to terms with life after Paul. They soon realise they never really knew him at all.
The love they shared for Paul in his life and which incensed a feeling of mistrust and dislike for each other, in his death turns into the very thing that bonds them and their children to each other forever.
As they begin to form unlikely friendships, Paul's deaths proves to be the catalyst that enables them to become the people they always wanted to be.
About the Author
Faith Hogan was born in
Ireland. She gained an Honours Degree in
English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a
Postgraduate Degree from University College, Galway. She has worked as a fashion model, an event’s
organiser and in the intellectual disability and mental health sector.
She was a winner in the 2014
Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair – an international competition for emerging
writers.
Her debut novel, ‘My Husband’s
Wives,’ is a contemporary women’s fiction novel set in Dublin. It will be
published by Aria, (Head of Zeus) on 1st of May 2016. She is currently working on her next
novel.
My Husband’s Wives, was published on 1st of May 2016 by Aria (Head of Zeus). It is currently available on Amazon and all good E-reading sites. She lives in the west of Ireland with her husband, children, a very fat cat called Norris and a selection of (until recently!) idle writerly mugs and cups.
You can find out more about Faith on her website
Click here
Find on Facebook
Click here
Follow on Twitter @GerHogan
Amazon UK
Amazon.com
Huge thanks to Faith for inviting Jaffareadstoo to be part of this Blog Hop
and for such a fascinating insight into the inspiration for Carlinsville.
Jaffa and I wish you continued success with your writing.
~***~
