What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A long sunny day on Galway Bay, a beach, and my family all around me.
Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Noel Browne - a doctor who swam against the tide.
Which living person do you most admire?
Naom Chomsky. He makes politics make sense.
Which is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I’m supremely lazy sometimes.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I spent €5 on a box of sea salt the other day, but it was delicious on the chips...
What is your favourite journey?
Coming home from work.
On what occasion do you lie?
If I need to hide the truth from somebody I usually just run away with a big red face on me.
Which living person do you most despise?
George W Bush, just like everybody else.
What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My kids and my husband.
When and where were you happiest?
At UCG as a medical student in the 1980s.
Which talent would you most like to have?
I wish that I could sing beautifully.
What is your current state of mind?
I’m fluctuating between bliss and agitation.
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
I learnt to play the clarinet last year and passed my grade four exam – yahoo!
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what do you think it would be?
A single male in my forties because I’d be on a different date every night.
What is your most treasured possession?
My laptop computer. I’d die without it.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
When my laptop crashed on Valentine’s Day, I virtually had to be sedated.
What is your favourite occupation?
Reading, writing, sleeping - in that order.
What is the quality you most like in a man?
Kindness and wit.
What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Honesty - makes it sound as if I don’t mind dishonest men. I probably don’t.
Who are your favourite writers?
Sebastian Faulks, John Irving, Joanna Trollope, Maeve Binchy, and Nell McCafferty.
What is your motto?
Get on with it.
Juliet Bressan’s debut novel Snow White Turtle Doves is published by Poolbeg Press Juliet was born in Salford, near Manchester. She grew up in the west of Ireland and studied medicine at NUI, Galway.
Kernan Andrews
