Emer Rohan
I’m Emer. I’m an Irish writer, from Gorey, in Co Wexford, recently named by Ed Sheeran as his favourite town in Ireland. I happen to agree with him and go home every chance I get.
When I was working in recruitment in Dublin in my late twenties, I met my now husband through work, Gavin-and-Stacey style. After a year and a half of flying back and forth, I took a ferry to Holyhead and drove my little moped all the way down to East Sussex.
Since then, I consider myself lucky to have two homes. Sus-sex is a beautiful part of the country, and while I don’t have the beach on my doorstop like I did growing up, I do have the Ashdown Forest, home to Winnie the Pooh and sometimes to me, either on horseback or with my dog, Pickle.
I grew up reading pony stories and Malory Towers. These days, I read widely, with a particular love of thrillers that centre around twisted families. I find families endlessly fascinating. There isn’t one without secrets, conflict, black sheep, love, and so much goes unsaid.
Maeve Binchy once said about herself – ‘I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you’re going to be an Irish writer’. I’m very lucky to be in the same boat, however that doesn’t stop my imagination taking me to dark places, thinking of all the things that can go wrong, the dangers, online and in real life, that lurk, ready to slither into the gaps between best-intention-parenting, and children being naturally curious and adventurous and taking risks. So that’s what I write about.