“We got them in especially for you!” she says. When I finish my sandwich, she gets up to fetch chocolate biscuits. There’s a palpable and appealing desire to make a connection, in the books and the woman herself. Keyes writes emotional drama with an easy, understated tone, which is perhaps why her characters feel so relatable to so many readers. A character in her new novel, Grown Ups, is trying to conceal bulimia from her husband and colleagues 2017’s The Break had a subplot about abortion and the difficulties of accessing one in Ireland. To call them escapism wouldn’t give the full picture either, because the dilemmas she deals with are some of life’s toughest. She tells tales of ordinary people, families and friends, unpicking all sorts of problems of the heart her books are long, humorous and have the quality of a warm bath.

The worst of that genre, now rather passé, was peppered with clichés that have endured - clumsy singletons stumbling into romantic heroes with a glass of prosecco in their hand - but that’s not what Keyes writes. In the first decade or so of her career, which launched in 1995 with her debut Watermelon, Keyes’s work was categorised as “chick lit”. As I confirm while researching this piece, many people are sniffy of her style of fiction - although, as it turns out, most of them will admit they have never read it. Perhaps Keyes’s apparent delight at this interview is partly because the attention she gets from newspaper culture desks is not quite proportionate to the number of bestsellers she has written (13).

Is it really OK for me to eat lunch while I interview her? “Yes, because I’ll be doing all the talking, so it’s grand,” she says. In the living room, she fusses me on to the sofa. The interior of the house is cheery and colourful, and we walk through an atrium where she has been painting abstract canvases her latest obsession, she says.

Will I be wanting some lunch? She’s bought some sandwiches, just in case I do.

Keyes has sold more than 39 million books of course I came. It’s a surprising thing to hear from someone who is not an up-and-comer, but one of the most successful Irish writers of all time. “It’s my honour that you came,” she says warmly, clasping my hands. After a turbulent flight from London and a meandering drive down coastal roads, I arrive to find Keyes dressed cosily in a tartan smock and slippers. My arrival to interview Marian Keyes at her home in Co Dublin - a big, bright, turquoise-painted house that is being ruthlessly battered by Storm Brendan - feels like being hugged. First published by The Times on 8 February 2020

Grown ups marian keyes summary