LISTEN: Bestselling Irish author Felicity Hayes-McCoy explains why the world needs happy endings

Felicity Hayes-McCoy recently joined hosts Kate Durant and Michelle McDonagh to discuss why uplifting fiction offers a necessary escape during difficult times. The prolific author shares insights from her decades of experience and reveals why she views choosing joy as a powerful act of resistance.

If USA Today bestselling author Felicity Hayes-McCoy has to put her writing into a genre, the one she feels fits best is "uplit" – storytelling that presupposes an optimistic ending, a positive outcome.

This is something the world is certainly in need of at the moment and one that perfectly describes the heartwarming, wise, feelgood books she writes.

Listen to Felicity Hayes-McCoy's full interview on "Natter" here: 

“There was a period of time, and I'm not sure it's gone away yet, in which books written by women were ‘cosy’… had to have pink covers and indeed not that long ago, were ‘chick-lit’.”

When Felicity who had spent years writing soap operas and television scripts decided to write her first novel in her mid-50s, she had no idea what genre her new series, set around a librarian protagonist in a fictional county in Ireland, was in.  

"I can never understand this idea of all books written by women, which aren't books about terrible, awful, dystopian or real terrible experiences, being ‘cozy’… So from my point of view, what I quite like is the term, if we must have a term, uplit."

Felicity was talking to writers Kate Durrant and Michelle McDonagh on Irish books podcast Natter with Kate and Michelle, produced in association with Bookstation, Ireland’s fastest growing and best value bookseller, and Irish Central, your daily source for all things Irish. 

Now 71 and planning to keep writing as long as she can, Felicity is the author of the bestselling "Finfarran" series of novels, which been translated into nine languages and feature a local librarian in a fictional county in Ireland.

She has written three memoirs: "The House on an Irish Hillside", "Enough is Plenty: The Year on the Dingle Peninsula", illustrated with her own photos, and "A Woven Silence: Memory, History and Remembrance", all of which have been enjoyed by her many readers worldwide.

Felicity has also published two stand-alone novels; "The Keepsake Quilters" and her latest book, "Once A Year". In addition to being an internationally successful author, she has enjoyed success as an actor and voice artist and as a scriptwriter in theatre, music theatre, radio, TV and digital media. 

A contemporary family saga set over a weekend in a hotel in the Irish midlands, "Once A Year" is the wonderful story of the Sullivan women who gather at a place filled with memories, bittersweet and painful truths come to the surface. Now that she's finally (and secretly) divorced her unreliable husband, Sheila is ready to celebrate.

However, is her family's annual get-together, held at the hotel they've owned for generations, the best time to break the news? Nora, Sheila's formidable mother, is distracted by her doubts about the Castlehill Hotel's new manager: her grand-daughter Máire. Meanwhile, Sheila's three daughters each have a big decision to make: Henrietta needs time away from home to think, Máire is afraid of losing someone, and Barbara is eager to take a risk …

To anybody thinking of writing a book, Felicity would ask the question "why do you want to write a book?

“And the answer has to be, because I have a story to tell of some kind. There’s something I want to say. Why would you open your mouth if you didn't have something to say? Writing isn't easy. It takes extraordinary mental and physical stamina, but it also takes technique. So if you've stopped reading for a while because you’ve been busily doing other things that you cared about and needed to do, read a lot before you start writing. I think it’s really important.”

A firm believer in the idea that joy is a form of resistance, Felicity feels it more so at this point in her life than ever before, with the rise of the global far right and one of the weapons of fascism being to sow discord, to separate people, and to take away hope. 

She says: “To take away the belief that the fact that I want to sing is just as important as the fact that you want to make a lot of money and stamp me into the ground. And the fact that I want to sing means that other people can join me and we can all sing with separate voices and make something together that is joyful. And that scares the hell out of the fascist mindset, which requires us to be constantly angry. 

“I'm all for anger. I'm perfectly happy to shout from the rooftops I've been on many a march. I've stood on the steps of the Irish embassy in London, shouting as a crowd. But I think that equally important is looking at a flower and saying, God, would you look at that? And then saying to somebody else, come here to me, wait till I show you.”

You can purchase Felicity Haye’s McCoy’s new book Once A Year at BookStation.ie. 

Listen to Felicity’s interview on "Natter" with Kate and Michelle now at Acast or on Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to follow "Natter" on Instagram @NatterWithKateAndMichelle or Facebook.