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star chat
I saw Imelda Staunton backstage
after a performace of Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Woolf? and the first
thing she said was, ‘We loved your
book’. She meant that she and her
husband [Downton Abbey’s] Jim
Carter had both read it! It was sort of
amazing, because if you didn’t like
it you wouldn’t have brought it up. I
thought, ‘I guess you mean that’ and
it was lovely.”
He’ll have to prepare for more of
the same when the nation picks up A
Keeper, his new mystery set in rural
Ireland. It follows two timelines – a
woman in the Seventies and her
daughter now, clearing out her house,
and is based in part on a true story.
“This book came from a story
my mother told me,” says Graham,
referring to his 87-year-old mum,
Rhoda. “The story in the Seventies is
about a woman who places a lonelyhearts
ad and my mum’s friend’s
‘If somebody had told me
21 years ago I’d still be
doing a chat show and
still enjoying it as much
as I did then, I’d have said
they were crazy’
With his dry wit
and flamboyant
personality, stars
such as Cher, Tom
Cruise and Tom
Hanks queue up for
a spot on Graham’s
chat-show sofa
daughter did that. There’s a twist to
the thing – the letters aren’t quite what
you think they are. That bit is true.”
Although Graham has gained in
confidence as a writer he expects the
knives to come out for his second
effort. “I think its reception will
be harsher just because people’s
expectations were very, very low for
the first book,” he chuckles. “This
time, there will be people who read
the kinder reviews the first time who
will be saying ‘Hmm, please can I
review his second book?’ There will
probably be some shockers this time.”
The reviews for A Keeper so far are
excellent. But even if there are a few
‘shockers’, as he puts it, thanks to that
one life-altering incident years ago,
Graham will be ready for them.
n The Graham Norton Show is on Friday
nights on BBC1. A Keeper is out now
(Hodder & Stoughton, £20)
YOURS n EVERY FORTNIGHT
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PICs: camera press/ Andrew Crowley / Telegraph,
wenn.com, pa archive/pa images