Read The Girls from Sandycove by Sian O’Gorman, where female friendship is transformative!🍦
I read recently that your ‘ride or die’ friend was the one you went to Barbie with last July and I love that idea, of the one friend who shares all those moments in your life, the births, the marriages and the deaths, and the blockbuster feminist films. I am blessed to know some brilliant women, a tribe of funny and fantastic females, most I’ve known for decades now. Any of us who are lucky enough to have one, two or ten best friends, know exactly how important they are, the women who make you laugh, who call for wine or tea and another slice of cake. There are few things more life-giving than being with other women, laughing together, sharing stories and experiences, learning from each other, lifting you up and carrying you forward.
My new book, The Girls of Sandycove, is a celebration of women and how we are with each other. My main character Kate has been travelling all her adult life but when she finds out she is pregnant, she flees from France where she is living, and returns to live with Flora, her best friend. And Flora, too, is having problems. She has just discovered her husband has been having an affair and she returns to her mother’s house to try and rebuild herself again. But when Kate returns, the two rediscover all the wonderful things that make friends so important. They meet for coffee in Kate’s campervan or go for long walks but there are other women in the story who lift them up and bring them along. There are ladies in the nursing home, where Kate begins a choir, or the women in the sewing circle which comes together to support Flora and her mother. And there is Edith, the owner of the haberdashery where Flora works. Even Lola and Flora’s mother, Patsy, both seemingly opposites in personality become close, finding common ground.
Last year, I vowed to see more of my friends, to prioritise spending time with them and to say yes to more adventures with them. I ended last year with a trip away with some of my oldest and dearest friends and when it was over, one of us said she couldn’t understand why her face was aching so much and then realised it was from three days of laughing. Friends, especially women, make our worlds go round.
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