Annabel Abbs, author of The Joyce Girl, published by Impress Books, shares her path to publication with Dolores Gordon-Smith
‘A Three years ago I came across Mary and Bryan Talbot’s graphic novel about Lucia Joyce, the daughter of James Joyce, and was immediately intrigued and furious, in equal measure. Fascinated by her untold story but furious at how she’d been treated, I began researching. I discovered she’d had affairs with Samuel Beckett and Alexander Calder, been treated by pioneering analyst, Carl Jung, and then left in an asylum to die – but that all her letters and medical records had been burned. The only biography of her was by a Joyce scholar and reviewers had noted that a fictionalised account of Lucia’s life might have been more effective. At the same time, Joyce had come out of copyright making it easier to access the notoriously difficult Joyce Estate.
‘Meanwhile I had terrible insomnia and was looking for something to do in the night that wouldn’t disturb my four young children and husband. I began writing Lucia’s story, invariably starting at 4am.