A strong sense of place can really add to the enjoyment of a book for me, and I especially love when a book is set in the author’s home town (or adopted town), so you get a really good feel for the place from an insider’s perspective rather than a touristy travelogue.
Some Girls Do is set mostly in my home town of Dublin (and a little bit in London), and I wanted to showcase some of my favourite parts of my native city in the book. Here’s a little look around some of the main locations that appear in the novel.
The Iveagh Gardens
The beautiful Iveagh Gardens, where Claire takes Mark on their first date
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| The Queen of Tarts cafe, where Claire likes to go for breakfast with a book. Me too! |
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| The Merrion Hotel, where Mark stays when he’s in Dublin |
| Merrion Square Park | |
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| Merrion Square Park with colourful Oscar Wilde memorial opposite the house where he grew up | |
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The Loft at the Grand Social has to be one of the coolest music venues in the city – and definitely the prettiest!
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The Western Cemetery at Highgate, where Mark takes Claire when she visits London. It seems a odd choice for a date, but it really is an incredibly romantic place. Whenever I have a London setting in a book, it tends to be the Highgate/Hampstead area because I always lived around that area when I lived in London. |
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Roly’s Bistro |
Roly’s Bistro in Ballsbridge, where Ali takes Luca when she wants to feed him up. |
| Dun Laoghaire | |
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(Pronounced Dun Leery) Claire takes her mother for a walk on Dun Laoghaire pier – a popular promenade for Dubliners on a fine day. Afterwards they have ice-cream cones from Teddy’s – a Dublin institution. |
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| Dalkey |
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These pictures were taken at a borrowed house in Dalkey, where I wrote a lot of the book. Dalkey is on the south coast of Dublin and is one of the most aspirational addresses, home to rock stars and film producers – and for a short while, me. It’s an inspirational setting, and I loved waking up every morning to the stunning views over Killiney Bay. Luca’s family live here in the book (with a few minor modifications). |
| Brittas Bay | ||
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Brittas Bay is a beautiful sandy beach in County Wicklow, just outside Dublin. It’s the beach we always went to as kids, and I have a lot of happy memories of it. |
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