Marian Keyes – Writing to Survive

Marian Keyes is an Irish author and Radio Presenter.

An overview of Marian Keyes before writing

Keyes was born on 10 September 1963 in Limerick and raised in Monkstown, Dublin. She was born into a large family of storytellers and had many siblings.

Keys graduated from the University College Dublin with a law degree. She moved to London in 1986. Through this period Keyes battled alcoholism and clinical depression which resulted in a suicide attempt and rehabilitation in 1995 at the Rutland Centre in Dublin. She describes her struggle in an article for The Daily Telegraph, in which she details how she battled anxiety, depression, and alcoholism that started at an early age.

Marian Keys’s First Book

Keyes began writing short stories during her fight. After her period at the Rutland Centre, she returned to London and submitted her short stories to Poolbeg Press. The stories were well received, and the publishers encouraged her to write a full-length novel. She thus began working on her first book: Watermelon. It was published in the same year, 1995.

Marian Keyes’s Books and Depression

Keyes battled with depression for a period of four years. During this time she wrote The Mystery of Mercy Close; a fictional story of a heroin battling with depression and suicide attempts (like those Keyes herself was battling with).

Marian Keyes on Radio

Keys was invited as a guest castaway for BBC Radio 4‘s Desert Island Discs in 2017. Her favourite track was “You Have Been Loved” by George Michael. During her appearance on the show, Keyes also told host Kirsty Young that in spite of all her efforts to treat her depression, what finally healed her was time: “It was an illness and it ran its course” – Said Keyes.

Marian Keyes Writing Style

Keyes’s is mainly considered to write in the comedy genre, but the themes of her books touch very dark topics including domestic violence, drug abuse, mental illness, divorce, and alcoholism. They follow and describe Keyes’s own experiences and she has chosen to reflect feminist issues in many of her books.

Keyes’s stories usually revolve around strong female characters as she herself is a feminist. These characters overcome obstacles for happiness. Although behind the scenes Keyes herself feels melancholic, she uses humour as a survival mechanism. A happy ending is the key to her seeing a brighter future.

Books by Marian Keyes available on Bakgat Books:

Rachel’s Holiday (1998)

Last Chance Saloon (1999)

Sushi for Beginners (2000)v

Angels (2002)

Anybody Out There? (2006)

The Brightest Star in the Sky (2009)

The Break (September 2017)

Marian Keyes has sold 35 million copies of her novels and her works have been translated into 33 languages. Her writing has won both the Irish Popular Fiction Book and the Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year, each on one occasion, at the Irish Book Awards.