Niamh Mulvey: ‘I thought people who wrote books were in a different category of brain. I didn’t think I had that’

Niamh Mulvey: ‘I thought people who wrote books were in a different category of brain. I didn’t think I had that’found herself at a crossroads. After more than a decade in publishing she had built an impressive career, editing the likes ofearly on and progressing through the ranks to become a senior commissioning editor at Quercus, the UK publisher. But she had recently been turned down for a role for which she thought was a shoo-in.

So she decided to leave her job, reasoning she could tide herself over with freelance work. “I remember thinking: ‘Well, who cares? The only thing that really matters is that I look after these children. And pay my rent.’ And luckily” – she gives a wry laugh – “publishing is so badly paid that their childcare was the same as my salary. So it didn’t really make much difference at that point whether I worked or not.

Thirteen years on, a dog-eared and underlined proof copy of her debut novel, The Amendments, sits between us. “I still can’t really believe that I’ve written that book,” she says. “I just thought people who wrote books were in a different category of brain. I thought it was something that set you apart from everybody else, and I didn’t think I had that.”

“I just felt it was very ordinary. Not particularly difficult. Not particularly privileged. But actually, when I started to permit myself to think about various things that I used to think about as a young person, I realised actually there was quite a lot of richness and interesting stuff there.”“It was similar in spirit to the one in the book, and it was a really lovely experience – I made some really great friendships through it.

In the background the 1983 and 2018 referendums – introduced and then lifted the abortion ban – are simmering, but this is decidedly not a “repeal novel”.

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