Anne Chambers is an Irish biographer, novelist and screenplay writer. Anne was born in County Mayo and holds a Master’s in history. Her best-known work on Ireland’s Pirate Queen, Granuaile: The Life and Times of Grace O’Malley 1530-1603 has become a bestseller. Ann refused to let Grace be forgotten and has championed the Pirate Queen’s incredible stories through her work. The biography has become the inspiration for documentary film makers, composers and writers worldwide. Her books have been made into Radio and TV drama-documentaries and she was short-listed for the GPA Irish Book Awards and for the 2004 Irish Hennessy Literary Awards. Anne lives for the world of books and theatre and works hard to see her screenplay on Grace O’Malley produced as a historic TV drama series with a female hero in the centre of the story.#believeingrace
Age:As Oscar Wilde once noted: ‘A woman who reveals her age cannot be trusted’!
Profession
Author
Can you describe yourself using 3/5 words?
Driven, dedicated, loyal, with a yearning to learn, to develop new writing skills for film and the theatre and to live life to the full.
What motivates you?
My writing career.
What story in your life made you the person you are today?
My introduction as a child by my parents to the world of books
Which people/ person did influence you the most?
My former boss at the Central Bank of Ireland, Dr. TK Whitaker, who almost single handedly transformed Ireland into a modern state and who was voted ‘Ireland’s Man of the 20th Century’ by the people of Ireland. In my early twenties Dr. Whitaker motivated me to write the first edition of my biography of Grace O’Malley as well as launching a number of my subsequent books. Later in 2014 I was honoured to write his biography – TK Whitaker: Portrait of a Patriot.
What was the toughest decision you’ve had to make in your life?
Abandon a secure and well-paid job in banking in 1992 for the precarious life of a full-time writer.
What do you love doing the most?
Writing
What is the most fascinating thing about your profession?
The challenge it provides to make the past accessible as well as the opportunity to adjust history’s glaring gender imbalance.
When you think about Grace O’Malley – what’s the Grace in you?
Grace O’Malley has influenced my writing career as well as my personal life in such an all-encompassing way that, in effect, she has become my ‘alter ego’.
What would you still like to achieve in life?
Have my screenplay for a TV drama series on Grace O’Malley produced.
What’s your favourite drink? Champagne