Author Interview: Sheila O'Flanagan

Sheila O'Flanagan, one of Ireland's best authors, has been writing books since 1999 when her first title Suddenly Single was published. 10 years and 15 books later, Sheila's new book The Perfect Man is due for release next month in the UK (September 2009), and the paperback of her 14th novel Someone Special (which I loved!) shot to the top of the UK bestseller's list! We had a chance to ask Sheila some of our burning questions, and she was lovely enough to answer them for us. So here is the our author interview with the lovely Sheila O'Flanagan!

Q1. Tell us about your latest book in a sentence.

Romy is very happy working in Australia and away from her difficult extended family, but having to come back to Ireland to take care of her mother after an operation means that the problems she'd left behind have to be dealt with.

Q2. What inspired you to write about an archaeologist in 'Someone Special'? Do you have an interest in this subject?

Actually yes. - I'm very interested in ancient civilisations like the Romans and the Egyptians. Programmes like Time Team have made archaeology more relevant to a lot of people too. But it can be very painstaking work and I don't really have the patience for it. I went to Egypt a number of years ago and there was something amazing about seeing all those ancient monuments and tombs, knowing that they were part of such an advanced society. And more interesting than tombs of the pharoahs  were the tombs of the workers which were painted with pictures of them going about their daily lives - so there were paintings of bakers carrying sheafs of wheat, for example. But the research I did for Someone Special was on the type of dig Romy does, which are very common in Ireland and the UK. Most local/national authorities now commssion digs before they allow new building projects or roads etc to go ahead so that historical remains aren't destroyed. As I mention in the acknowledgements, the archaeologists at the site were very helpful, but I visited in February which was really cold and not very glamorous but nevertheless very, very interesting.

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