Living by the seaside: A writer's diary

Best-selling author and actress Kate Thompson tries solitary seaside living in the interests of writing. Would it work? Read Kate's column over the next few weeks in the Country channel

A while ago, I took up residence in a battered mobile home overlooking Clew Bay, having been driven out of my home in Dublin by chronic noise pollution. The mobile home belongs to my mother-in-law, and it has stood on the same remote, windswept site for 30 years. It has what might euphemistically be described as a ‘lived-in look'. While beauty board, swirly acrylic carpets and crimplene curtains may have been le dernier cri in caravan furnishings back in the '70s, these days it's looking a bit dated. But the view is sensational, the silence worth its weight in gold, and I get a lot of writing done there.

 

When October arrives, however, the winds that come in off the Atlantic get scarier and scarier, and living in that house on wheels would be a feat worthy of a Japanese reality show. It was time to invest in a new set of industrial strength earplugs and head back to town.

 

I was spared this fate worse than death by a friend who told me he had ‘just the thing for me'. An apartment in the seaside village of Roundstone, in Connemara. Had I ever been there? Yes - when I was three years old, according to my father. I'd passed through the village in a camper van with my parents and I'd been suffering from mumps. It was clearly time to go back.

 

I packed up, and my husband Malcolm drove me to Connemara late one Monday evening. It was dark, and as the car negotiated the winding road that leads from Recess to Roundstone, I caught an occasional glimpse of a spangle of lights - the street lamps of the village. Apprehension lurched. I had said that I'd take the apartment for the winter, and I'd be spending a lot of time there on my own, with no car. What if it didn't work out? What if I hated the apartment, or what if the villagers took agin me and stonewalled me? What if writer's block descended on me? What if I went mad with loneliness?

 

The car rolled up the main village street, past dark houses and a cosy-looking pub. A glance through the window told us it was virtually empty. There were no people on the streets, and no traffic. A couple of cats blinked at us from window sills. We parked in the car park of the deserted apartment block that was to be my home for the next six months, and dragged a case of winter woollies, a box of books and my lap top computer out of the boot. Hulking bags round a corner, we suddenly stopped short. Even in the dark you could tell that the view was awesome. Sea below, stars above - diamantine constellations that city people never get to see any more.

 

When I walked into the apartment I could have sworn I heard it say ‘Welcome'! My friend had been right when he'd said that he had ‘just the thing for me'. There was a big table opposite the picture window for writing, there was an open fire, lots of books and a dishwasher. There was a telephone line and a television that only got three channels. Perfect! No distractions in the form of Sky News or MTV. We lit the fire and wandered down to the pub for a pint. The barmaid told us we were very welcome, and I felt she meant it.

 

The next morning we saw the view properly for the first time, and our instinct from the night before proved to be right. I had ended up in possibly one of the most postcard-picture-perfect villages in the whole of Ireland. But, as the days passed and the time came for my husband to return to Dublin, I wondered how would I fare with the seclusion by myself?

 

Read part two of Kate's column on Solitary Seaside Living next week

 

About the author

 

Kate Thompson is a bestselling author and professional actress whose latest book The Kinsella Sisters, her 12th, is set on the west coast of Ireland and follows the lives and loves of two very different sisters. Find out more here

Described as ‘Ireland's Joanna Lumley', she has acted alongside the likes of Gabriel Byrne, Brendan Gleeson and Liam Neeson. Visit Kate's website at www.kate-thompson.com