My latest book is a non-fiction work, The Hollow Heart.

I always wanted to be a mother – not such an ambitious goal, except when you learn you can never have children. At which stage the desire to give birth becomes not just a wish but an obsession.

In three attempts at IVF, in-vitro fertilization, I lost nine embryos. Or nine ‘maybe babies’ as I thought of them. But I also lost my marriage and my dreams of becoming a mother. The Hollow Heart is the story of my journey from early bewilderment at being diagnosed as infertile, through the traumatic and demanding process of IVF, to the shattering fall-out when it failed.

But I also describe how my despair eventually faded, and how I made a new life for myself, learning to take pleasure in my extended family of nieces and nephews. Most of all, The Hollow Heart is the story of learning to do as my mother always advised – to count my blessings. This is a guide to the pitfalls of IVF. It’s not a scientific text, it’s the story of one woman’s physical and emotional reaction to the rollercoaster ride that is fertility treatment.

:: The Hollow Heart is published in a new format in Ireland and the UK in June 2006.