About the Author: Fiona McPhillips
What would you like readers to know about you?
I'm an Irish journalist, author and screenwriter. I'm an editor atThe Forge literary magazine and my own work has appeared inThe Manchester Review, Hobart and Barren Magazine, among others.When We Were Silent, the runner-up for the 2021 Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger, is my debut novel. I live in Dublin with my three kids, two cats, and a dog.
What music do you listen to (if any) when you write?
None! I need silence to write but I love music and it plays a big part in When We Were Silent. There's lots of 80s indie music in the past timeline and a few more favourites in the present.
What books or authors inspired you to become a writer?
I read everything I could get my hands on as a child, from Enid Blyton to Stephen King to any random book on my parents' bookshelves. My dad remembers finding me reading a book on the stock market when I was six or seven because I had read everything else! In more recent years, I've been inspired by the explosion of Irish female writers – Louise Kennedy, Sally Rooney, Naoise Dolan, Claire Kilroy and so many others.
About the Book: When We Were Silent
What is your book about for those who haven’t read it?
When We Were Silent is about outsider Lou Manson who enrolls at the private convents school Highfield Manor in 1980s Dublin to try and expose a culture of abuse at the school. Following the death of her best friend, Lou is determined to make Highfield pay. But Lou soon discovers that the Highfield elite will go to any lengths to protect their own reputation, even when the consequences are fatal.
Thirty years later, Lou has rebuilt her life after the harrowing events of the so-called “Highfield Affair” when she is called to testify in a new lawsuit against the school. But telling the truth means confronting her own complicity and there is one story she swore she’d never tell…
What has been your inspiration for writing it?
I started writingWhen We Were Silent in late 2020 when I was reading Anne Lamott's book on writing,Bird By Bird. I took to heart her advice to write about your childhood: “that time in your life when you were so intensely interested in the world, when your powers of observation were at their most acute, when you felt things so deeply.
At the time, I was also listening to the BBC podcastWhere is George Gibney?about the former Irish national swimming coach who avoided trial in 1994 for years of sexual abuse against his young swimmers. I was so inspired by all the victims who stood up to him in the early 90s, and by everyone who went public with their stories for the podcast. They painted a very clear picture of how he was supported to keep abusing kids for so long, how slow everyone was to believe he was capable of it and to understand the true horror of what “it” actually was.
InWhen We Were Silent, I wanted to explore both of these things, the determination, loyalty and joy I remember from my own teenage years, and the forces that try to steal that power. Like most women, I have my own stories, although this one is a work of fiction.
Where can your book be purchased?
Everywhere!
To the Future Writer:
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to write a book?
Just keep putting one word in front of the other. The reader doesn't know which parts flowed easily and which you had to drag out of you.
What’s next for you? Any events, upcoming pubs, etc.
Capital Crime, London, 30 May
West Kirby Bookshop, 13 June
Kirkby Library, 14 June
Book Passage, San Francisco, 9 July
PesText Festival, Budapest, 26-29 September
Where can we find you:
Twitter- @fionamcp
Instagram- @fiona.mcp
Website- http://fionamcphillips.com/
TikTok-@fiona.mcphillips
What’s on your TBR list?
I can't wait for Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
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