Portrait by Taryn Barling
Writer, dance instructor and former primary school teacher Gill Perdue talks literary inspirations, writing process, and her latest novel, All of Them Lied.
Gill Perdue is a writer and dance teacher. She worked as a primary school teacher for fifteen years and published four children’s books. If I Tell, her first adult novel, was an Irish bestseller and shortlisted for Crime Novel of the Year at the 2022 Irish Book Awards. It was the first in the Shaw & Darmody series of crime thrillers published by Penguin, set in the fictional Dublin suburb of Clonchapel.
All of Them Lied is Gill’s fourth novel.
Thea wakes from a coma, having forgotten much of the recent past. As well as learning to walk again, she studies the list of ‘facts’ she keeps on her phone, hoping something will unlock her memory. But as Thea gets hazy glimpses of the lead-up to her fall, the facts stop adding up. Trapped at home in the middle of the Irish countryside, dependent on those who were on holiday with her – her fiancé, her brother, her sister-in-law and her best friend – terrifying questions surface: Was I pushed? Why are they lying? Who can I trust? As memories come tumbling back, Thea realises she is in a race against time to figure things out – and that her life hangs in the balance.
Did you always want to be a writer? Tell us about your journey to becoming a published author.
Yes, I always wanted to be a writer and I have been writing my entire life, but I also wanted to be a ballet dancer! The no-nonsense approach to careers guidance in the early ‘80s saw me packed off to teacher training college to become a primary school teacher, which my parents considered a proper job. Luckily, this proper job (which I grew to love) paved the way into writing and my first published book was actually for children.
What inspired you to start writing?
I think that reading is what inspired me – especially reading to my class at the end of each school day. It was my favourite time. I loved how wrapped up the children became in the story and I wanted to write something which would do the same while also reflecting their lives back at them.
Tell us about your new book. Where did the idea come from?
My new book is about a young woman called Thea who is rebuilding her life after a death-defying cliff fall while on a hiking holiday in Italy. Thea was with the four people she loves most – her fiancée, her brother and sister-in-law, and her best friend. Along with the serious physical injuries she sustained, the fall has also affected Thea’s memory and, as she struggles to remember what happened on that fateful day, we realise before she does, that the fall was no accident.
The idea was born when I was on a hiking holiday in Italy with my husband. Haha. True story! We were completely alone, miles from anywhere on a narrow mountain pass. On one side, we were pressed against rocky outcrops and a path that rose up steeply. But on our left was a sheer drop, a ravine so steep that you could barely see the scribble of silver which was the river at the bottom. We were looking at the tops of tall trees and below them, more tall trees and so on. Interspersed between the trees were boulders that had tumbled down and shattered into sharp pieces, and between these were dry and jagged branches that looked like witches’ fingers, ready to tear you apart. I was following my husband, fighting vertigo and tears and swearing rather a lot. He paused, waiting for me to catch up and said – “Actually, this would be a great place to murder someone if you wanted to get away with it.” And so a story was born.
What do you hope this book instils in the reader?
Ooh, I hope this book entertains, first and foremost. And I hope that Thea’s battle for her recovery and her life proves inspirational for the reader.
What did you learn when writing this book?
Great question! Though hard to know where to start because writing a book teaches you so much on so many levels. On a personal level, you learn the importance of showing up every day, of committing to the story and trusting the process. You learn patience. You learn that it doesn’t have to be great straight away, what is important is to keep at it. You can make it great later. But the other way you learn when writing a book is through your research into the theme. I was very interested in the vulnerability of people who live with mobility and neurological issues, either through injury or illness. My dad had Parkinson’s, and so I had lots of experience of navigating the world with him using either a stick and later, a rollator. I did a lot of research into the medical technology which can rebuild a person after a devastating injury. I also researched the whole area of neurological physiotherapy – where you are working with the whole nervous system, including the brain.
And I have twice come back from injury – once when I was eleven and I had an operation on my leg to remove a tumour, and more recently when I broke (the same) leg. My experience of learning to walk again and trying to rebuild my strength informed my writing.
Tell us about your writing process.
I would love to say that I have a fail-safe process which I have honed over my long writing career – but unfortunately, life often intervenes! I spend a long time thinking about a story before I begin, so while there’s no actual words written during that time, there might be pages of notes on both my phone and in notebooks; there might be scribbled pages of interviews with interesting people who work in the field I’m writing about. There will definitely be lots of Googling and falling down research rabbit holes!
However, from the time I begin a first draft, I do try to start as early in the morning as I can and the goal would be a thousand words a day. A very useful tip that has made a huge difference to my output is not to read back or edit the previous day’s work. I know that many writers find this helpful to get them back into the story, but I would happily tinker and edit for hours, rather than think up the action! So for me, at the end of each day’s work, I leave myself a little note about what I’ll start with the next day, and that’s where I begin.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
This question inspires a massive answer! Like the movie title – Everything Everywhere All At Once! Life, bus journeys, the Luas, newspapers, Instagram, court reports, overheard conversations, interesting-looking people, television and books, theatre trips, radio interviews, travel… I try to ask myself, would I want to read about this? If the answer is yes, I will pursue it.
What are your top three favourite books of all time, and why?
Only three? I’m going to choose three books which have a few things in common in that I felt changed by them – I remember the main characters for the rest of my life, and they inspired me to want to write.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. For the four March siblings (I’m from a family of four.) For the sisters’ relationships, for their resilience and the struggle to overcome hardship. Above all, for the character of brave, hot-headed, wannabe writer, Jo! I had never encountered such love and sacrifice in any story before this.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. The first psychological thriller I read. Seared into my memory by the gothic mystery, the creeping menace. The house. By the unnamed narrator, who is so completely out of her depth you shudder for her.
The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee have got to get in. Both of these books have unforgettable narrators and enduring power. The characters are as real and authentic as a member of one’s family.
Who are some of your favourite authors, Irish or otherwise?
Basically, I put all my Irish crime writing buddies at the top of my list of favourites. Then: Abigail Dean, Claire Fuller, Liane Moriarty, Donna Tartt, David Nichols, Hilary Mantel, Will Dean, Liv Matthews, Ruth Ware, Paula Hawkins, Shari Lapena and more.
What are some upcoming book releases we should have on our radar?
Recently published, we have Such a Nice Girl by Andrea Mara and Under Her Care by Fiona Gartland. July brings us not only Buyer Beware by Catherine Ryan Howard but also a standalone thriller, Everything She Didn’t Say, by Jane Casey, author of the Maeve Kerrigan series. And February 2027 sees the publication of Beautiful Liars by Amanda Cassidy. These are and will be epic!
What book made you want to become a writer?
The first time I realised the sheer power of writing was when my lovely English teacher Ms Tracey introduced us to The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde. Shout out to all the brilliant English teachers I’ve known, by the way! Heroes all.
What’s one book you would add to the school curriculum?
As To Kill a Mockingbird is probably already on, it will have to be The Smeds and the Smoos by Julia Donaldson. Start building empathy and understanding as young as possible. And make the Leaving Cert kids do it too. You’re never too old for empathy.
What’s the best book you’ve read so far this year?
Such a tricky question – but it’s got to be The Death of Us by Abigail Dean.
What’s your favourite bookshop in Ireland?
It’s got to be The Rathfarnham Bookshop, which is just up the road from me. And I love Dubray too!
What’s some advice you’ve got for other aspiring writers?
Believe in yourself. Write the book. Get it written. You can make it good afterwards.
Lastly, what do the acts of reading and writing mean to you?
Reading and writing help me make sense of the world. They help me process pain and loss; they are my escape when it all gets too much; they are my guides when I’m lost. Honestly, these acts are right up there with sleeping, eating and breathing.
‘All of Them Lied’ by Gill Perdue (Sandycove) is on sale now.
Portrait by Taryn Barling.