Angela's Ashes

So one of them was Call the Midwife, which is quite famous now by Jennifer Wirth.

And another one was Frank McCourt's story, Angela's Ashes.

So I looked at how they had written their stories And I looked at crafting a style which would be engaging.

So one of the things we found was there's no shortage of material from our life in Samoa.

I created a product.

Angela's Ashes, the guy who wrote that, wrote that at 62.

There are many women who come into their own later.

They create a product.

Yeah.

Let's look now at your next pick of influences, Donal, and this is a memoir that became a massive global publishing phenomenon, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, a multimillion-selling coming-of-age story about growing up in extreme poverty in both Brooklyn and Limerick.

So what's the influence of Angela's Ashes on your novel Where Are The Kings?

Well, um, that book has influenced, I think, everything I've written, um, since I started to write seriously about 20 years ago, um, because it's just so beautiful, and it's so unaffected, it's so-

I mean, it's-

... from design.

It, it, it's, it's a big conversation today, the accuracy of memoirs.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

I would recommend the Frank McCourt memoir trilogy, starting with book one, Angela's Ashes.

Oh, that's good.

um i'm gonna pick something way more fun um and i'm gonna pick something sorry that was rude um ashes is fucking depressing yeah i'm gonna so then i will say not more fun but a little bit more um uplifting although ironically i um have read this book several times now and i cry every single time i read it which is Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson.

It's my favorite novel of his.

And

Angela's ashes is the one that I can see directly in my life.

Easy peasy.

But, you know, it isn't true.

You know, the guy who wrote Angela's Ashes wrote that in his 60s, Frank McCourt.

A lot of great writers started to write when they retired.

Yeah.

I imagined what it would be like.

I loved the writings of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and of course Frank McCourt, the author of Angela's Ashes.

And he is the one who really made me fall in love with Ireland.

But there was always a reason to wait.