Actress

Booky Call - Bringing Books To Life

Who should swipe right on me?

Ready for the lowdown about what goes on in the wings rather than the performance on the stage? I know some really interesting people who have hidden their true selves from the media, but I have the full story. Swipe right if you want the inside scoop on Irish theater legend Katherine Odell and her complicated relationship with her daughter.

What are my most attractive traits?

I can transport you back and forth from the present to Old Hollywood. I can make you nostalgic for that time even if you were not alive during Hollywood's heyday. I have the power to make the past feel attainable and tangible. If you want to escape the present, I'm ready to grab a Chanel suit in your size.

There’s a little dorkiness in each of us. Here’s what makes me dorky.

I like surprises. I'm good at hiding it then springing it on you when you least expect it. I don't seem like the surprising type, so it is surprising that I'm surprising. Oh, I'm so clever!

I like to be inspirational. Here is one of my favorite quotes to inspire you.

"If you think about it, the youngest part of the tree is in the very middle. It is the little dot that will widen into a ring, next year. The youngest part of any tree is the heart."

I’m a sucker for a great one-liner. Here’s one of my favorites.

"Just the way all mothers are crazy to their daughters, all mothers are wrong."

What do I spend a lot of time thinking about?

I spend an inordinate amount of time pondering the relationship between a mother and her daughter. When you think of it, do you think of a close-knit, nurturing bond between a girl and her Mom? When your eyes are opened to more complex relationships, you gain a new perspective. I find myself looking at mothers and daughters wondering what their bond is like, especially when one or both of them treats every part of life as a performance.

What will we eat/drink on our first date?

Going out for a cup of tea would be a great way for us to get to know each other while staying warm. It rains a lot here in the UK, and not the warm rain like in the southern U.S. Don't tell anyone, but that's the reason we drink so much tea over here. We're just trying to fight off the chill.

If that first date goes well, I’ll want to take you home to introduce you to you know who. Let me tell you about them.

My book mama, Anne Enright, is the mother of more than half a dozen books. She started really writing when she was gifted an electric typewriter. That led her to winning a Chevening Scholarship for a creative writing course. Her 2007 work "The Gathering" won the Man Booker Prize. I'm her seventh novel and was longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction.

What celebrity would sound best if you dated my audio version?

Anne Enright already does a fabulous job, but if I had to pick someone else, actress Samara Weaving, who played Claire Woods in "Hollywood," would be a great option to voice my audio version. She is already well-versed in the old Hollywood feel, so she would totally dominate this.

The Details

Publisher - W.W. Norton & Co

Pages: 272

Publication Date: March 3, 2020

Genre: F - Historical Fiction