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Cathy Kelly is the type of person you could chat with for hours about absolutely anything. Her passion is as strong when she discusses her own books as it is when she chats about her dogs, hens and her memories of butter making with her grandmother.
Cathy speaks to Irish Country Living on a dark rainy day, as she happily sits on the floor of her study surrounded by her dogs. She has recently released her 20th novel, The Family Gift – one a bit different to her previous books.
To ‘churn’ is a wonderful thing, but it should never be used in terms of sitting down and writing a book
“It’s the first book I’ve done in the first person. The tenses are different and you have to concentrate on that but it is really an interesting way of writing. I thought about it and I discussed it with the lovely Marian Keyes. She said, ‘Go for it’. She was very encouraging.”
In The Family Gift, the main character, Freya, is a celebrity chef. Cathy asked chef Catherine Fulvio for help with as Cathy put it “the mechanics” of how Freya found herself in that position. Cathy went to Catherine and asked: “Can you tell me how she got to this point so that I can fill in the blanks?”
Did Catherine give her any cooking tips? “I didn’t get recipes from her, but I wish she had taught me,” Cathy laughs, admitting she isn’t the best cook.
“I love the idea of cooking. I think I’m just ground down from shopping, running a house and working. It’s a full-time job being a writer.”
Churns and chickens
The word “churn” is often used in an almost derogatory fashion. If you should ever have the pleasure of meeting Cathy Kelly, you should never refer to her skill of writing books as her “churning” them out. She feels quite strongly about that.
“To ‘churn’ is a wonderful thing, but it should never be used in terms of sitting down and writing a book.”
Cathy was born in Belfast, brought up in Dublin and now lives outside of Enniskerry. She remembers making butter with her grandmother when she was a child with a barrel churn.
“My wonderful granny in Sligo, she taught me so much. By God, it was a hard job. Many a time I did that until you reach that wonderful moment when you begin to hear the clumps of little bits of butter forming.
I spent years of my life talking to hens, they’ve great personalities
“Eventually the clumps would be getting heavier and heavier, finally you would be looking, and saying, ‘My arm is going to fall off soon’. Then you would have it. If I was very good she would let me use the paddles to shape the butter. That was usually her job.”
“People came from miles around for her butter and I have only once or twice tasted butter handmade and artisan that is like hers.”
Her grandmother also kept hens and Cathy oversaw the hens during the many summers she spent in Sligo as a child.
“I was great with the hens. I am a hen whisperer. I do a very good hen talk and they always come to me because they know.
I’m the worst knitter in the world. The chances of me knitting Aran are as much as me joining NASA
“I spent years of my life talking to hens, they’ve great personalities. The nearest I come to hens now is I have a mat inside the door in the back because of my dogs. It’s a coloured mat with three beautiful hens on it two Rhode Island Reds and there is a Sussex. Blanch, Ruby and Scarlet are their names.”
Irish Country Living discusses hens with Cathy, comparing breeds and Cathy had a search through the chicken bible her sister had given her. Marvelling at Hamburg hens and Plymouth Rocks.
Cathy even gave knitting hen vests for charity a go.
“I couldn’t follow the pattern. I can only knit straight things. I’m the worst knitter in the world. The chances of me knitting Aran are as much as me joining NASA.”
Social media and chickens
Social media can be everything to some people. Cathy is on Instagram and Facebook but doesn’t live by it.
“I’m mediocre to not-so-brilliant. My automatic instinct is not to take a picture of a thing. I’m so hopeless with pictures. It’s only recently I got into taking selfies. I’m appalling at it, the whole getting your arm out and having to push the button.”
“I love art and I love the concept of pictures and seeing people’s lives. I like trying to show me.”
Social media can have quite a hold on some especially the young.
“I’m too old for it to make me feel crap about myself but if you’re a 17-year-old looking at beautiful people all the time and you stand in front of the mirror and you say, ‘I’m a failure because I’m not that person’, how hard is that on today’s young people?
“So, in the same way my books are often about what is underneath the surface, social media is quite often the surface,” explains Cathy.
Cathy finishes off the interview with her famous chicken impersonation. Chickens must have been flocking to her yard ever since.
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