The Interview

Paris 1972. Eileen Gray, Irish designer and architect now in her 90s, is the reluctant darling of the international media, second time around. After years of living in reclusive oblivion the record breaking price paid for her Destiny screen in the Doucet sale has her back in the news. Bruce Chatwin, young, rising star of Fleet Street, spends two hours closeted with her in her apartment. Why wasn't the interview published? What happened between Eileen Gray and Bruce Chatwin that afternoon? In this brilliant new novel, Patricia O'Reilly explores that event and imagines what happened between the two.

Patricia O'Reilly comes to writing books via the route of freelance journalism and radio documentaries and plays. She has long been fascinated by Eileen Gray, who is the subject of many of her literary works. Her previous novels, also inspired by real life, include A Type of Beauty: The Story of Kathleen Newton (long listed for Historical Novel Society Award 2012) and Time and Destiny. In addition to fiction writing, Patricia is a highly regarded creative writing tutor at UCD and elsewhere. She lives in Dublin.