Eimear McBride was born in Liverpool in 1976. She is an Irish novelist whose debut novel A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing won the 2013 Goldsmiths Prize and the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.
What’s your earliest memory?
Holding on to the end of the sofa and realising I couldn’t remember anything before that moment. Pretty interesting when it happened at age two. Less so when it happens at 48…
Who are your heroes?
As a child? James Cagney. White Heat, The Public Enemy, Angels with Dirty Faces – I watched them all on TV as a little girl and I wanted to be him when I grew up. Now? I still want to be him when I grow up.
What book last changed your thinking?
Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. At some point in 2005 it made me think I was interested in cooking. Turns out I wasn’t but it was a fascinating thought experiment.
In which time and place, other than your own, would you like to live?
I think 2225, as I’d quite like to see how the world will look from humanity’s suspension chamber lodged within the hive mind of a cryogenically preserved Elon Musk. Either that or the grassy knoll in 1963.
What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?
I’d have to go for American cinema 1969-83. Coppola, Scorsese, Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, it’s a list of directors that could go on and on. Unforgettable films. Incredible performances and uncompromising writing about uncompromising subjects. I love it.
What political figure do you look up to?
Václav Havel obviously dwarfs the competition. A fine writer, a true intellectual and a politician of integrity and courage. Plus, he managed all of this while being a survivor of blacklisting rather than its cheerleader. I doubt we’ll be seeing his like again any time soon.
Who would paint your portrait?
I have a face that only Lyubov Popova could love.
What’s your theme tune?
“Jism” by Tindersticks. It’s probably my favourite song, easily my most played and very definitely speaks to the dark in me.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
As a child, whenever I expressed anxiety or apprehension about the unknown, my mother would just say, “Fear is not a good enough excuse.” And I have followed this advice. If I hadn’t, I suspect I’d now be living an entirely different life. It might be a less embattled one but I’m pretty certain it would also be a less interesting one.
What’s currently bugging you?
People who carry on as if parroting a few talking points gleaned from TikTok counts as an opinion that deserves to be taken seriously. Jesus wept!
What single thing would make your life better?
“Coping” coming back into fashion.
When were you happiest?
September to December 1994.
In another life, what job might you have chosen?
Antiquarian bookseller. I imagine myself in a tweed skirt, hair in a chignon, poring over ancient editions of the greats – with extensive knowledge of publication history, binding and typeface to back me up – from a little shop in Cecil Court. It’s a fantasy which contains a degree of civilisation to which I could never hope to aspire.
Are we all doomed?
No, not all, so good luck!
“The City Changes Its Face” by Eimear McBride is published by Faber & Faber. Eimear will be at the Cambridge Literary Festival on 27 April
[See also: Keir Starmer in Trumpworld]
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This article appears in the 26 Feb 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Britain in Trump’s World