Elaine Garvey on 2002, Wadrobe Departments, and Women Walking

"She finds herself in London working in a theatre having to touch people!"

Elaine Garvey, to discuss her novel, THE WARDROBE DEPARTMENT, published by Canongate Books. It’s 2002. Mairéad Sweeney has moved from rural Ireland to work in London’s West End. While the prestige of working in theatre doesn’t exactly wear off, the long hours and spoiled actors make Mairéad’s transition from Ireland more difficult than it should be. Things get even more difficult when Mairéad has to return home for her grandmother’s funeral. It’s here she begins to reconcile with the life, people and values she left behind. This is Elaine’s first book. She has been published in the Dublin Review and the Winter Papers, and has been awarded funding schemes by the Irish Department of Arts for her writing.



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Tickets to Katharina Volckmer in conversation!



https://www.seetickets.com/event/katharina-volckmer-in-conversation/hyde-park-book-club/3381984



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Rippling Points



1.31 - Why the year 2002?



4.32 - books about women walking.



5.39 - who is Mairéad and why is she in London



7.39 - what is the wardrobe department



9.40 - shadowing the costume department!



12.10 - differences between London and Mairéad's home in Ireland.



13.34 - Mairéad's family.



14:40 - Mairéad's boss.



18.15 - Similarities to the Milkman



21. 16 - when is Mairéad's moment of realisation



23.48 - Choosing your words and religion.



27.29 - Is how Mairéad feels about Ireland different to Elaine?



29.15 - how the novel emerged from a short story.



Reference Points

Anna Burns - Milkman

Charlotte Brontë - Jane Eyre

Seamus Heaney - Sweeney Astray

Hilary Mantel - The Mirror and The Light

Herta Müller - The Land of Green Plums

Rozsika Parker - The Subversive Stich

Virginia Woolf - Mrs Dalloway