***Απαγορεύεται από το δίκαιο της Πνευμ. Ιδιοκτησίας η καθ΄οιονδήποτε τρόπο παράνομη χρήση/ιδιοποίηση του παρόντος, με βαρύτατες αστικές και ποινικές κυρώσεις για τον παραβάτη***

Clare Pooley (Clare Pooley) graduated from Newnham College (Cambridge) and spent twenty years working in advertising, which she left to devote herself to raising her children. She lives in Fulham, London with her husband, their three children, their two dogs and a hedgehog. She runs the blog Mummy was a secret drinker which has been visited by three million readers. In 2017 she published the autobiographical The sober diaries which received rave reviews. Her first novel The Authenticity project was released in at least 29 countries and was much loved by readers, and she is expected to have similar success with her new novel The People on Platform 5 which is expected to be released in at least 20 countries. In our country both of these books are published by Metaixmio Publications. Some time ago she was in Athens to promote her new book and we had the opportunity for a short conversation with her. With the kindness that characterizes her, she told us about her journey into the world of writing, her difficult past, the addictions of her life and how such a personal problem as the one she faced with drinking became the reason for a path to global success. We truly appreciate this and wish her the best of success. 

Tessy Baila, January 2023

How did you start your journey into the world of writing? Was it an easy start and what was involved until your first book was published?

I started writing as a form of therapy.

Back in 2015, I could no longer ignore the fact that I had a terrible addiction to alcohol. I quit drinking, but was too ashamed to ask for help, so instead I started an anonymous blog called “Mummy was a Secret Drinker”. I poured my heart out to strangers in that blog every day.

Within a year the blog had gone viral, and I had readers and publishers asking me to turn it into a book. My memoir –“The Sober Diaries”– was published in late 2017, and I discovered that I had a new addiction – writing.  So, I decided to try writing fiction.

My first novel –“The Authenticity Project”– was inspired by my own experience of telling the real truth about my life to strangers.

Is writing a self-improvement process? Does it help the writer cope with personal difficulties?

It certainly does in my case!

I started writing as therapy when I quit drinking, and I soon discovered that if I didn’t write each day, I became edgy and anxious. Writing, during that terribly difficult time, helped me to rationalize my own thoughts, and articulating my fears took away much of their power.

Now I write fiction, but I still find the process therapeutic. Firstly, because the act of writing fiction itself takes you out of your own head, for hours at a time. It gives you a break from reality. And secondly because you still get to explore all the things that you love, that you hate, that make you angry, that you want to change and that you don’t understand. But you do this through the eyes of your characters, which makes it less exposing.

You have spoken openly about your personal difficulties and how you have dealt with them. Do you believe that you need to look your fears and weaknesses in the face in order to deal with them and ultimately help other people do the same? Is that what you did?

I do believe that you need to look your fears and weaknesses in the face in order to deal with them, and that is what I did.

It’s more than that, though. It took me a while to understand this, but it’s not about just knowing your weaknesses, it’s about learning to accept them. To embrace them even. I had to accept that I am an addict, but I now realize that being an ‘all-or-nothing’ person has its advantages too! It means I throw myself into everything – family, friendship and writing. My experience of addiction has also made me more compassionate. Many of the best people I know are ex-addicts.

The underlying message in my novels is that nobody is perfect. Everyone is struggling with something, and it’s our flaws that make us unique and human and loveable.

You have said “what every writer dreams of is someone loving their story so much that they’ll make a point of saying to a friend “There’s this book that you really must read…” What book is capable of making you talk about it like that? What does it have to have to touch you?

For me, there is a special magic about finding a really good book. Within the first few pages you forget you’re reading the story at all, instead it feels like you’re living in it. The books that are most likely to do that for me are the ones where I discover a completely unique and bewitching character, one who you just want to spend more and more time with. My favorite examples are Jane Austen’s Emma, Eleanor Oliphant and Elizabeth Zott in Lessons in Chemistry.

Both of your books, “The Authenticity Project” and “The People on Platform 5”, are being published in over 20 languages. In Greece we have enjoyed them by Metaixmio Publications. How do you feel about this worldwide success?

I still can’t quite believe it, to be honest. It’s so incredible when characters who for so long just existed in your own head go out into the world. And it’s the best feeling ever when people from all over the world write and tell you what those characters and their stories have meant to them.

“The People on Platform 5” is moving and funny and the characters are loveable. How did you work on this particular book? And what makes a story unforgettable? The characters or the plot?

I started writing this book during lockdown.  We were all confined to our own houses, and I found that I not only missed family and friends, I also missed being surrounded by crowds of strangers. I thought back, nostalgically, to the days when I used to commute to work each day on the London Underground. I used to see the same people over and over again, but we never spoke, because the first rule of London commuting is that you don’t talk to strangers on the train. Ever.

I began to wonder what might have happened if I’d broken that rule, and that thought became the idea for the book.

For me, the characters really make the story. If you don’t care about the characters and what happens to them, then the most intricate and exciting plot in the world is meaningless.

Is humor the best way to talk about big social issues?

I think so! I believe that if you can laugh at something, you take away its power to harm or scare you. Then, when you can face it, you can do something about it.

Finally, could you tell us a few words about your next writing projects?

I’m currently about halfway through my next novel, and I’m at that hard, but exciting, stage where I’m still getting to know my new characters and finding out where they’re going to take my story…

«Η γραφή της Pooley είναι δαιμόνια, γεμάτη χιούμορ και γοητευτική. 
Το λατρεύω αυτό το βιβλίο».
Hazel Prior, συγγραφέας

«Αισιόδοξο, αστείο, γεμάτο αγάπη και καλοσύνη».
Nita Prose, συγγραφέας

«Αυτό το μυθιστόρημα πραγματεύεται τόσο πολλά ενδιαφέροντα θέματα,
πάντα με το χιούμορ της Clare, που έχει γίνει το σήμα κατατεθέν της,
τη θαυμάσια γραφή της και τους ζωντανούς, αξιαγάπητους χαρακτήρες της –
η feelgood λογοτεχνία στα καλύτερά της! Σχεδόν με έκανε να χάσω τη στάση μου».
Sophie Cousens, συγγραφέας

Όλοι λένε ψέματα για τη ζωή τους. Τι θα γινόταν όμως αν μοιραζόσουν την αλήθεια;

Αυτή είναι η ερώτηση που γράφει σ’ ένα ανοιχτοπράσινο σημειωματάριο με την επιγραφή «Το πείραμα της αυθεντικότητας» ο Τζούλιαν Τζεσόπ, ένας εκκεντρικός ζωγράφος εβδομήντα εννέα ετών. Αφήνει το τετράδιο στο καφέ της Μόνικα στην Οδό Φούλαμ πυροδοτώντας έτσι μια αλυσίδα γεγονότων που θα αλλάξει τις ζωές των έξι πρωταγωνιστών. Στο σημειωματάριο αυτό ο καθένας τους θα αποκαλύψει τις ενδόμυχες αλήθειες και επιθυμίες του και μέσα από την αλληλεπίδρασή τους θα ανακαλύψουν όλοι τη δύναμη αλλά και τον κίνδυνο της ειλικρίνειας.

Ένα σύγχρονο μυθιστόρημα με ξεχωριστούς χαρακτήρες, συγκίνηση και χιούμορ, άρωμα Λονδίνου και έντονο κινηματογραφικό αέρα. 

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