Home from home: Sheila O’Flanagan on her Alicante ‘hideaway’

Fans of multimillion-selling Irish author Sheila O’Flanagan will probably know that her novel The Hideaway was a love letter to Valencia, Spain, with its wonderful orange groves and trailing bougainvillea. What they may not know is that Sheila has had her very own escapist Spanish hideaway for the past 20 years, where she goes whenever in need of heat, brightness and, most importantly, inspiration.

Sheila first fell in love with Spain in her late teens when she visited the country on a standard package holiday. “It was all very touristy and everything, but I really liked it,” she says. “When I came back a couple of years later, I did more of a do-it-yourself holiday and travelled around a bit.”

[ Sheila O’Flanagan: Over tea at the Gresham, Gran would tell me about bowsies and blackguards, checkpoints and raids ]

She was still working in banking at the time, just writing short stories for her own pleasure, but found the Spanish “vibe” really inspiring. “I always found when I was sitting under an olive tree, it was just so peaceful.”

She returned again and again over the years with her husband, renting apartments or small villas, and gradually began to think, “Gosh, it would be really nice to have something for myself.” From there, the plan to buy their own place “grew organically”.

They visited a number of towns on the Costa Blanca before finding Guardamar del Segura, a little spot south of Alicante city, where new houses were being built. “We had to make a decision whether we wanted to go up on the hills, remote from anywhere or if we wanted to be near the coast. On practical terms we decided to be nearer the coast and people. I like to be able to walk places,” Sheila says. “I get a nosebleed if I’m outside Dublin!”

When I come here, there’s a little mental shift that happens to me as a person. When I’m reading what I’ve written, I’m looking at it from a slightly different perspective

Buying their own little slice of Spanish heaven proved a great decision, even just in terms of the benefits it brings to her writing life. Speaking to me from Guardamar, Sheila explains that she works best by writing her books through the dark months of winter in Ireland. Then she sets out to edit and “lighten them” in the heat and brightness of the south of Spain.

“When I come here, there’s a little mental shift that happens to me as a person,” she says. “When I’m reading what I’ve written, I’m looking at it from a slightly different perspective. I find that really helpful. It’s no different to people deciding they’re going to Galway or getting a cottage down in Kerry.”

[ Sheila O’Flanagan: ‘I don’t need to be patronised and told that every line on my face tells a story’ ]

It’s not surprising, then, that the author, originally from Greenhills in Dublin but whose main residence is in Clontarf, missed her Spanish hideaway badly during the pandemic. “I was aching to get away as soon as we could.”

After the pandemic, they decided to renovate their second home. Luckily, the laid-back “mañana, mañana” attitude sometimes associated with Spain did not materialise: the local workmen who carried out the upgrade were “so efficient and so good”, always turning up when they said they would. As for the style of the house, it has quite a modern interior but still retains a Spanish feel. And naturally, there’s a dedicated writing room, which Sheila says is necessary for getting into the right mindset.

Sheila O'Flanagan at home in Alicante. 'When I come here, there’s a little mental shift that happens to me as a person,' says the writer.

So what is daily life like in Alicante for one of Ireland’s most prolific and successful novelists? “It is a slower kind of pace and actually it’s just a very nice lifestyle when I come here.” It’s not a holiday, as they go to Spain for extended periods (generally between one and four months at a time), but it’s a relaxed way of life all the same.

“I usually would do some work during the morning and then maybe either go out for lunch, or have lunch here overlooking the pool.” She gives a self-deprecating laugh after mentioning her own pool, in an endearingly Irish way.

Then in the afternoon they go to the beach, or to a nice little bar or cafe. Sometimes their Spanish friends invite them out for lunches that drift from 2pm until about 5pm, or dinners that stretch from 9pm until midnight.

After visiting a number of towns, Sheila O’Flanagan and her husband settled on Guardamar del Segura, a little spot south of Alicante city.

Sheila finds the people-watching inspiring when she’s out and about. “I think probably all writers are people-watchers, and certainly from a very young age I used to watch people and eavesdrop on their conversations and be really rude.”

“I love watching Spanish people when they’re out in the evenings because they’re so chatty and, of course it’s a cliche but it’s true, they go out in a big family group, grandparents and children ... and the children are always so well behaved!”

“And, of course, I read a lot here,” she adds. Even though she’s working, there are fewer demands on her time than back home in Dublin, so she has more of a chance to relax with books. “When we’re coming out for an extended period, I always box up books and I post them to myself. I have a big box of books waiting for me – the postman knows me.”

I think for writers, every new place that you go and every different experience that you have will set you off

Her Alicante bolthole has also served as a base for her travels around Spain, which in turn spark ideas. “Really, I think for writers, every new place that you go and every different experience that you have will set you off.”

Take the beautiful countryside of Valencia, for example. “We stayed in a few different places up in the hills, in the olive groves, and it is balm for the soul.” And from these trips The Hideaway was born: the region was so gorgeous that she decided she had to set a novel in a house there.

“I’ve gone to places like Navarre in the north ... and it’s really mountainous and a much mistier, cooler part of Spain. It’s really beautiful,” she adds. “That in turn sets you thinking.”

In Seville, Sheila happened upon a chic rooftop bar in the EME Catedral Hotel. 'Sitting there, I had about seven different stories I could have set in that rooftop bar,' she says.

And in Seville, she happened upon a chic rooftop bar in the EME Catedral Hotel. “Sitting there, I had about seven different stories I could have [set] in that rooftop bar.” In the end, it made an appearance in If You Were Me.

“One of the other books more recently was The Woman Who Ran Away – in that book, the two women drive through France and Spain. It’s a trip that I have done ... [The book] hits loads of little places in Spain that I’ve been to.”

So, boxes of excellent books, her own pool, productive morning writing sessions followed by long lunches with locals, and exploratory trips around Spain thrown into the mix to keep the creative juices flowing – it reads like a happy ending worthy of one of Sheila’s own chart-topping novels.

Sheila O’Flanagan’s latest novel, The Woman on the Bridge, was published in April 2023 by Headline Review