Marian Keyes: ‘I would never have been a writer if I was still drinking’

Her own way with words is adored by her legions of fans largely due to her knack of tackling dark subjects such as depression, addiction and infertility – all of which Keyes has experience of – with humour and relatability.

Her book Grown Ups is currently being made into a TV series for Netflix: “It would be so, so nice if they could use people who could do Irish accents properly. They don’t have to be Irish.

“I would also like a cameo, and my mother wants one as well – the best place we could be in would be a chemist because we enjoy bad health!”

Graham Norton once noted that “she uses humour like a Trojan horse, in which she smuggles in all sorts of difficult issues.”

Her latest book, My Favourite Mistake, is no different.

It’s a follow-up to her 2006 novel, Anybody Out There?, where we catch up again with high flying PR executive Anna Walsh, one of the Walsh sisters, who first appeared in Keyes’s debut, Watermelon.

Having something of a mid-life crisis (while dealing with perimenopause), Anna leaves New York and returns to her native Ireland, burnt out.

Keyes jests: “Manhattan is no place for the weak or the young. You need a bucket of B vitamins to live there!”

Anna soon finds herself embroiled with an old flame (Joey) and involved in a criminal investigation at a holiday retreat on the coast.

It doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs but it’s peppered with Keyes’s trademark banter and hilarious encounters.