Grace Wynne-Jones

I interviewed the actor/director Stuart Townsend last Sunday beside the Hill of Tara and I also interviewed his pal Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I didn’t feel like I was meeting ‘celebrities’. I felt I was meeting men who can care deeply about issues that are much bigger than themselves…and that is the kind of ‘celebrity’ I really like to meet! They were involved in an amazing project. Stuart had asked his pal, aerial artist John Quigley, to do some aerial art at Tara. Vast numbers of people turned up to form themselves into the shape of a harp and the words ‘Save Tara Valley’. It was a message to the skies, but it was also a message that was photographed from a helicopter and published around the world. In the aerial art people became ‘art’. What an amazing and wonderful way to gather folks together. And it was fun! I’d love to interview John Quigley himself one day. He’s done similar projects in the Amazon, the Arctic, Miami and many other places. He seems to know how to gather people together in a way that isn’t divisive but wondrous.

I recently read Anne Tyler’s lovely book Digging To America. Her books are elusive and true. Grounded in ordinary life and love but also extraordinary. And wise.

Love and light,

Grace

‘If you try one new author, try Grace Wynne-Jones…that rare combination of depth, honesty and wit…and all of this backed by a deliciously soft, gentle and loving humour…’
OK! MAGAZINE

Hi There,

Yesterday I went with a friend into the wilds of County Wicklow. I sat in the sunshine under a tree for quite a while. There was a stream nearby providing its own beautiful music. It reminded me of when I was a kid and lived in the countryside. I picked some blackberries. How lovely it was to be out in nature. To be reminded of its splendid colours and ordinary magic. The feel of the fresh air and the light. The rhythms of the earth and its seasons.

I was thrilled to be featured in the Herald Express last week - it’s a lovely Devon newspaper. I wrote the final chapters of The Truth Club while living in Devon. I used to particularly enjoy having cuppas and chats with friends in the Fat Lemon cafe in Totnes. It’s on Ticklemore Street…what a great name! It has a lovely courtyard so you can sit outside and talk about life’s mysteries….they do a lot of that in the ‘Alternative Capital of England’. But the uplifting effect of a good slice of chocolate cake has also often made its way onto the conversational menu.

Love and light,
Grace

I recently found a super new pair of boots in Horsham, which is a town in West Sussex. I am not someone who goes on a lot about footwear, but small things can mean a lot and I really liked wearing those boots to a wonderful wedding I attended some days later. I’d wanted new boots for absolutely ages but hadn’t got around to getting them, And then when I went back to Horsham, a lovely town that was once ‘home’ for some years, I found a pair that seemed just what I wanted. Not too flashy. Comfortable. Just a little hint of the wild west about them. They even looked slightly worn in that fashionable way. A light sort of unexpected brown.

I have also spent quite a bit of time in Devon…such a lovely place! I house-sat in Totnes, sometimes called the Alternative Capital of England and also worked for a wee while as a voluntary organic gardener in a Buddhist Retreat Centre. I wanted to learn more about Buddhism but I also learned quite a bit about the hard work of being a gardener and the joys of picking dew laced vegetables very early in the morning! The retreat centre was mostly ’silent’ so I sometimes chatted with the squirrels! I also lived for some months in Teignmouth, Devon and I finished The Truth Club there. It’s a town by the sea and very pretty.

Large parts of ‘Ready Or Not?’ and ‘The Truth Club’ were written in Sussex, so, as a sort of ‘local author’ I recently found myself being interviewed on BBC Southern Counties Radio in their Brighton office. It was good to visit Brighton again. It’s a bouncy, colourful place that thrives on variety. Gordon, the lovely interviewer, was a joy to talk with.

Best wishes,

Grace

‘If you try one new author, try Grace Wynne-Jones…that rare combination of depth, honesty and wit…and all of this backed by a deliciously soft, gentle and loving humour…’
OK! MAGAZINE

A lot of my novels are about the masks that people wear and what is truly underneath those masks. And of course I sometimes wear masks too. We all do. Just today I rang a friend and admitted I was upset about something. There was a part of me that wanted to say “Isn’t it lovely weather! Did you watch that great programme on the telly last night about making cakes and puddings?” but I needed to be real. I have had many similar conversations .

True intimacy can’t exist if all of life becomes a ‘performance’. It’s lovely to share happiness, but sadness is just as legitimate too. And often these feelings co-exist. Life, if it is to be full and deep, needs to make space for the solace and comfort of apparent contradictions. Instead of black and white one has technicolour. There is light and shade. And the various things we find unlovable about ourselves need our understanding and tenderness.

The characters in my novels discover this. It is something I need to remind myself of very frequently. Like most people, I am far more comfortable with the playful, fun and cheery side of myself. And I sometimes convince myself it is the only side of myself that people want to see. This is, of course, utter nonsense. The people I value, the people who are truly dear to me, see through me anytime I am pretending to be happier than I am. And that is one of the reasons why they are dear to me. They read the looks, the silences and the gestures. And, when I have shared my truth I often find myself laughing again. Real laughter.

I think we all need to find our way home many times every day. There are things and situations that can draw us away from ourselves. ‘Roles’ that can appear to define us. But we are more than our roles and we are more than the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. ‘Home’ is where we know what we truly value, and what we truly long for. Where we know what is truly our ‘medicine’. And we are guided to explore if what we want is also what we need.

‘These things are real: desert, rocks, shelter, legend.’ Judith Fryer

For someone who was brought up in the lush countryside of Ireland I have a strange affinity with starkness. When I was in my late teens I spent some time in the bush in Botswana. I remember feeling that I could almost feel the earth’s dear heartbeat when I placed my hand on that ground. I have many pictures of the high desert of New Mexico in my house. I love the sparseness and the red rock. I love the dry earth and the baking sun…the high clear singing blue sky. It gives one a sense of distillation. Of essence. At night in that landscape the sky is full of luminous stars. I love the Irish landscape too but for different reasons. It calls different feelings from me.

Before I set off to do a ‘Vision Quest’ in New Mexico some years ago (there is a link to an article about it on this website) a poem by Theodore Roethke became very important to me. Here it is:

The Waking

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

It’s taking me a while to get used to having a website. In truth I could probably blog on for hours about a lovely trip to a County Wicklow beach last Friday…it was sunny and it was so nice to be out in nature. I felt a bit slow and dreamy and the birds, grass, sea and sun seemed to be humming such a beautiful tune! I was brought up in a rambling rectory in the wilds of the Irish countryside. My first great love affair was with a pony called Merrylegs. One of these days I would really like to write an article about Equine Facilitated Therapy. Yes, it does sound odd but it is becoming increasingly popular. It seems that horses and many other animals can greatly assist people in their healing.

Ah ha…I’ve just realised why I am sometimes a bit nervous about blogging. Part of me feels I should be telling you about my books, but in fact I am far more drawn to telling you about the ‘Wildlife Club’ I started as a girl with some friends. We said we wanted to help nature and our little proclamation was hidden in a gap in an old stone wall. However we seemed to spend a lot of time baking potatoes in a fire we lit in our little hideaway in the woods. Some years after that came the Jackie phase - like many teenagers I adored that magazine and, amongst other things, it made me experiment most enthusiastically with lurid blue eyeshadow. There was a programme about Jackie on the telly last night (Monday 9th). My goodness, I’d forgotten how gorgeous David Cassidy was in those days! They played snatches of his song ‘Could It Be Forever?’ I wished they’d played the whole thing. I even found myself surfing the Internet trying to find it and play it…but I am a novice at such matters. Really must learn how to find some of the songs I loved so much that are now rarely played on the radio. And maybe one of these days I’ll buy myself some Badedas bath oil again…as a teenager I loved the ad that said ‘Things happen after a Badedas bath…Perhaps it’s something to do with the horse chestnuts…’ Jasmine in ‘Ordinary Miracles’ has fond memories of Badedas too.

Some people have told me that they haven’t been able to find ‘Ordinary Miracles’ in some book shops. Hopefully this will be rectified soon but if you want to email me to let me know that you haven’t been able to find it in your local book shop you can email me at grace@icuknet.co.uk and I’ll forward your note to the relevant folks. The book is available on Amazon.

Anyway, I hope you had a lovely Easter and that you ate a little more chocolate than you should have.

Lots of love,
Grace

It only takes ordinary miracles to change your life.

Jasmine Smith: forty next month and not ready for it; married to a man she likes and not prepared to give up on love; smothered by life’s mundanity, and yet drawn towards its mystery. She wants the sort of love that makes her feel more alive, she wants wild sex in stalled lifts with film stars. She wants something else….
Jasmine Smith is in desperate need of a miracle. And with the help of an adventurous school friend, a man called Charlie and a pig called Rosie she is about to find one.
A sharp, funny, moving novel and an exhilarating invitation to step out of quiet desperation and re-discover the magic in life and in love.

ISBN 1905170645 / 9781905170647 price £6.99 February 2007

Purchase from
Amazon.co.uk from February 19.

COMING LATER THIS YEAR…

Wise Follies ISBN 1905170637 / 9781905170630 Price £6.99 April 2007
Ready or Not? 1905170653 / 9781905170654 Price £6.99 June 2007
The Truth Club 1905170661 / 9781905170661 Price £6.99 August 2007

see the Press Release from Áccent Press (PDF file)

PRAISE FOR ‘ORDINARY MIRACLES’

‘Wonderfully dry…I really enjoyed it.’ Catherine Alliott

‘Beautiful, tender and funny, written with great perception…a remarkable novel.’
Katie Fforde

‘The belly-laugh being a rare enough commodity on this planet, this promises to be one
of my favourite novels of the year…very very funny.’ In Dublin

‘Funny, heartwarming and special.’ Marian Keyes

‘Grace Wynne-Jones writes up a storm of wit in her first novel…a fine
new writer.’ RTE GUIDE

‘Ordinary Miracles has that rare combination of depth, honesty and
wit…and all of this backed by a deliciously soft, gentle and loving
humour…If you try one new author, try Grace Wynne-Jones.’ OK MAGAZINE

‘She has an assured style and a wonderful insight into the separated
lady’s lot…I couldn’t put it down. I literally read it from cover to
cover.’
Muriel Bolger, ‘No Jacket Required’ RTE RADIO ONE

‘A delight of love, laughs and starting again…which is very far from
ordinary.’ Yvonne Roberts

‘Ordinary Miracles is about relationships and love and sex and a little
bit of guilt. Jasmine is a worried and witty heroine…an engagingly
high-spirited and perceptive debut.’ THE IRISH INDEPENDENT

‘Wynne-Jones’s sense of humour and the self-mockery of her heroine makes it both funny
and touching.’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

‘I really enjoyed it.’ Shakti Gawain, bestselling author of ‘Creative Visualisation’

12th January 2007

Hi Folks,

I’ve been reading a wonderful book by Deepak Chopra called ‘The Path To Love - Spiritual Strategies for Healing’. It’s not exactly a light read and rather challenging (in a helpful way) in places…but its message is hugely liberating and loving. I’m so glad a friend gave it to me when I saw it in her house and picked it up…she herself found it in a second-hand shop. It’s an American edition so it found its way here from the States. I could easily not have read it. I admire Deepak Chopra but somehow he seemed a bit ‘Hollywood’ to me. Now I understand why thousands of people know that he is a wonderful communicator for Spirit. That book was written with huge commitment, wisdom and love.

Grace

Hi Folks,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The wonderful (and award-winning) Accent Press are publishing new editions of all my novels in 2007 which is hugely encouraging. Hope to get more info. onto the site about this soon.
‘Ordinary Miracles’ seemed to touch the hearts of many people who became ‘re-entry singles’ (what a strange yet accurate description) after many years of marriage. I had many lovely letters from readers about it so it’s great that it is ‘re-entering’ the book shops, along with the other books. ‘Ready Or Not?’ (Tivoli) and ‘The Truth Club’ (Tivoli) are currently available in Ireland. I grow very fond of the characters in all my novels. They seem like intimate friends and tell me such helpful and entertaining secrets.

Love,
Grace

Hi Folks,

Well it’s that time of the year again when we wonder what Jesus would have made of the modern day Christmas. But there are loads of examples of love and light around and adding to them really helps the festive frolics and cheer.

To tell the truth, I’m still getting used to this website thingy. Not sure whether to share my views on the meaning of life or to tell you I’ve eaten less chocolate this Christmas…though the chocolate I did eat was yummy. On a more serious note, dear Mother Earth really needs our gratitude and respect and assistance to heal from what us humans have done to her. We are custodians of this garden. Though I occasionally enjoy dancing in a circle singing ‘The Earth Is Our Mother’ some of the stuff we need to do is not exactly romantic and doesn’t involve flowing shawls and incense. For example, I need to get insulation put into my attic
and more insulation in my house in general to help prevent heat loss It is in a way the poetry of prose. E.M. Forster writes about linking the various aspects of human nature in his beautiful book ‘Howard’s End’…and about poetry and prose and much else besides. Novelist Zadie Smi’th loves his work and her book ‘On Beauty’ contains the lovely line: ‘Time is how you spend your love.’

In beauty may you walk.

Love,

Grace

Hi there. I’m a webpage novice. Probably should be encouraging you to buy my novels and telling you about great reviews, but I don’t feel like it just at the moment. It’s Saturday and I’ve just had apple pie, blueberries and cream with my writer friend Philip Casey who, by the way, has a fabulous new bathroom only it’s not called a bathroom because the bath has been taken out. It’s a ‘wet room’ and has a super dooper shower. His pal Dermot Bolger said he should bring in an armchair and plant a palm tree and retire there for the winter.

This is fun!

Philip actually designed this website for me based on Wordpress.

At some point I must put links to various articles I’ve written on this site, including one about a Native American Vision Quest I went on in New Mexico - how I adore that red rock country which inspired some of the colours for this site.

Lots of love,
Grace