Paula Byrne: evaluation

Transcript context

…Because I feel that way about my books, that I’m always writing about myself in some ways. A hundred percent. I’ve said it many, many times, that all biographers are writing autobiographies. Even the fact that you choose to write about these certain people, it’s something that appeals to you or you may have been shaped by. I was really fascinated — going back to the Hardy book for a moment, I was really interested in working-class women’s stories because I come from that background. The background I come from, it’s very matriarchal, it’s Catholic, it’s women had a lot of power. I could never understand middle-class women saying women have no power because I was like, “Oh my God, you’ve never been in my family,” because they were always the storytellers. They were really — the men were really not as strong as the women. I was really fascinated by female lore in Thomas Hardy. What are these stories that go through the generations? Do we believe them, these illegitimate children? I was always interested in giving people a voice. I wouldn’t be drawn to that if I hadn’t had that background because I know that’s how women talk and speak. I think Hardy was really fascinated by working-class women and their strength of character and their stories and all those things. I think you’re completely right. I don’t think there’s a single book I’ve written where I feel cold, where I feel like I don’t know this world or I don’t share something of myself. I think it’s just a fallacy to say, “Oh, I’m really objective. I wrote that book and I’m so objective.” I just don’t think it works like that. I think you see things that you think, “Ah, okay. That’s really fascinating.” Somebody else might say something completely different and not see it. For me, there’s always my own autobiography, and I hope it doesn’t distort it too much, but I have to be — No, that’s great. I love that in the books. I don’t know you at all, but I feel as if I know you just reading the biographies.…

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