Patricia O’Reilly’s Fiction

In the process of researching and putting together my first novel, Once Upon a Summer, I learned how not to write a novel and finally after countless re-writes and tearing aparts discovered how to. I’ve written another three novels, been translated and have had unrealised movie treatments suggested. .

A Type of Beauty is the dramatised account of the life of Kathleen Newton (1854-1882) whose love affair with Jacques Tissot scandalised Victorian society. A sweeping story set in London, Agra, Bombay and Paris, it brings to life the sights, scents and emotional landscapes of the Victorian era.

‘Patricia O’Reilly has woven a truly intriguing story.’ Lucinda Hawksley

‘Fabulous movie potential.’ Mary Kenny

‘An engaging and illuminating exploration.’ Carlo Gebler

‘A joy to read.’ Christine Dwyer Hickey

Time & Destiny

The roaring twenties. Paris is at the feet of one Irish woman – Eileen Gray. Decades on, the destiny screen prompts a journey back through time. Enter Jack Devine, handsome debonair, an antiques expert. He is intrigued when he discovers Yves Saint Laurent has paid a record sum for a lacquer screen designed by Eileen Gray. Who is this enigmatic woman, once celebrated, now all but forgotten? For Jack as for Eileen, it is the beginning of a journey which uncovers hidden links to a past neither could have imagined.

See also Eileen Gray Page and The House by the Sea, featured in The Gloss, August 2007

Reviews:

‘A good read that goes very well with a glass of wine and a bubble bath’ Sunday Independent

‘A wonderful book to curl up with and dream of being in Paris’ Evening Herald

‘A rich rewarding read’ Books Ireland

Buy it here

Felicity’s Wedding

It is Felicity’s Wedding day – supposedly the happiest day of her life. Will she, could she, should she go through with it? Her decision will cast ripples into lives far beyond her own.

Reviews:

‘A winner’ Irish Independent

‘Thoroughly enjoyable’ Sunday Independent

‘Gloriously funny, as well as sharply observant’ Irish Examiner

Buy it here

Once Upon a Summer

It is 1959. And the class of 4A at Rose Horn’s convent school in Dublin have discovered boys. And dating. And kissing. Rose dreams of love. And of exchanging her thick lisle stockings and bulky school uniform for the daring black chiffon numbers of the gorgeous Rita Hayworth.

Reviews:

‘The pages capture the stultifying social mores of the day’ Irish Independent

‘Patricia O’Reilly writes with passion’ Irish News

‘The surprise paperback hit of the year’ The Kerryman

Buy it here