This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Oh how I adore the Walsh Family. They're quirky, eccentric and there is never, ever a dull moment in this Irish household.
The Walsh family, for those that don't know, are the rather fabulous creations of author Marian Keyes. I say creations, but I know they're real really.
Mammy Walsh, Dad Walsh and five sisters.
Claire told her story through Marian Keyes's first novel, Watermelon. She was married and lived in London. Alas, just as she had finished giving birth to her first child, her husband James announced that he is leaving her. So back home Claire went, with baby, into the bosom of her family.
In Rachel's Holiday, Rachel is living and partying hard in New York. But when she takes a drug overdose, and is suspected of doing so deliberately, she is brought back to Ireland from New York faster than you can say Cornettos.
Maggie, in Angels, is the quiet, safe and reliable one in the family. She was a good girl. Some, i.e her sisters, might even consider her dull. So when she decides to leave her husband and move to Hollywood everyone is a little bit shocked.
In Anybody Out There? Anna is also living in New York. Until she has an accident and returns back home, that is, but where is her husband Aiden, and why isn't he answering his phone?And finally, Helen – the sister who gives the others so much grief when they return back to the family home. She is described as 'wasp-tongued' but in the novel The Mystery of Mercy Close, Helen shows a vulnerable side we've never seen before.
So they all have a book (not to mention Mammy Walsh and her ebook – The A-Z of the Walsh Family). It's fair to say we've got to know the family pretty well over the last decade or so.
We know that Mammy Walsh does not cook. She tried hard though. Good, plain food that has had all life, and flavour, thoroughly boiled out of it. The girls refused to eat it. In fact, they saw eating her food as a high risk activity. So Mammy Walsh stopped cooking and instead she started buying in biscuits, cakes, buns and ice cream. In particular, Cornettos. Every summer the family would look forward to the new flavours and limited editions. It became a sport for Mammy Walsh finding them all.
Whenever the girls came home, and at various times they would all come home, they were offered one. It was their Mammy's way of showing love. Because God forbid anyone actually said that to each other.
When Maggie went round to tell them the news about her and Garv she was offered an M&M Cornetto, which she graciously accepted. Helen, meanwhile, can be heard saying she's sick of Cornettos. Why couldn't her dad bring a Magnum back from the freezer centre instead?
So, yep, this week I'm making Cornettos as a homage to the Walsh family. I realise this is the exact opposite of what the Walsh family would do (why on earth would you make a Cornetto when you can pop down the road and buy one?), but humour me. And it is the perfect time of year to eat one.
You can find the recipe on the Good Food website.