Cecelia Ahern delves into the past on episode two of The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy

Twenty years on from the debut novel that took the world by storm, PS I Love You author Cecelia Ahern revisits her best-selling love story with Ryan Tubridy on his new podcast series The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy.

A prolific storyteller, with 25 million copies of her 19 novels sold worldwide as well as two film adaptions, Cecelia reflects on life before and after she shot to the top of best-seller lists in 2004 through the prism of three books: her favourite childhood book, the book that made her cry, and the book that changed her life.

Unsurprisingly, Cecelia’s love for books started very early in life, as she credits the first books she read - like her Ladybird book collection - with training her how to tell a story.

A self-professed daydreamer, her appreciation for the absurd has stayed with her since first reading her all-time favourite childhood book The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton.

The story of three children finding a magic tree that brings them to new worlds is a concept that has informed her own writing to this day.

“Even when I’m writing now, I think my character is pretty much climbing up the tree to see what world she is in and that is the basis of all of my stories: ‘What land is it now for my character?’ I think it began with this!” she explains.

It was the story she wrote at just 21 that she crowns as the book that changed her life. Armed with the handwritten manuscript of PS I Love You, she shows Ryan the first ever draft of the novel, dated 11th October 2002.

She reveals that it was her fear of public speaking that was the catalyst for what was to become “the most amazing, overwhelming moment of her life”.

She left her Masters just three days into the course when she was told she’d have to speak in front of the class. She instead began writing the book through the night at home, with her mum encouraging her to send the first chapters to an agent.

Within weeks, she secured a two-book deal, and PS I Love You hit bookstores in 2004. 

Explaining her concept for the book which follows Holly, who receives letters from her deceased husband in the year after he passes away, Cecelia tells Ryan: 

“I was very fearful at the time and I needed the people around me so much. And I thought, ‘What if I lose them? What if I lost anybody?’ And that was so terrifying, thinking of all the ways you could hold onto somebody.

“And then it became not me and it became a story, like ‘What if someone wrote letters?’ I love handwriting, I think if someone writes something in their writing it has got a bit of their soul and I keep it and treasure it.”

She continues:

“So I thought what if someone loses someone she loves and she receives letters from him, ongoing? Like communication beyond the veil. And that’s where it came from. It had a lot to do with how I was feeling but I put it on this other person and gave her a completely different journey and story.”

Ironically, becoming a successful writer meant that the girl who even got nervous on behalf of her dad former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he had to deliver the budget in the Dáil, found herself in a different country every week, in boardrooms, on press tours and at book conferences speaking to the masses!

In a nostalgic anecdote, Cecelia also reveals how she totted up the amount of words she was handwriting for each chapter at the back of her first draft as she didn’t know what wordcount was on a computer!

“When I signed the contract, it said word count 80,000 – 100,000 and I had no concept how big a book that was. So, I went out and I bought a book and I counted the number of words on the first page and multiplied that. Just to get an idea – and because I was so young and I didn’t want to look like I didn’t know what I was doing!

“And at the back of this [manuscript] - I also didn’t know what a wordcount was on a computer, had no idea - I counted all my words,” she laughs.

To hear more of Cecelia’s book choices and for Ryan’s own segment Ryan Recommends, don’t miss The Bookshelf with Ryan Tubridy, sponsored by Eason, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major audio platforms and to watch on YouTube.

All the books discussed on the podcast are available now in your local Eason store or online from Easons.com before 6pm for same-day dispatch, with free delivery when you spend over €10.