Claudia Carroll has revealed that the controversy surrounding Graham Dwyer’s trial inspired her new novel.
The Fair City star is set to release her 13th novel All She Ever Wished For next month, which tells the tale of a woman who is chosen as a juror while going through a difficult divorce.
The actress admitted that while she was gathering research for the book in the Four Courts, she came across the public spectacle that surrounded Graham Dwyer’s highly publicised murder trial.
Inspired: The author was inspired by the controversy surrounding the Graham Dwyer trial | VIPIRELAND.COM
“I was down at the Central Criminal Court and there was a huge queue outside the door at eight in the morning, and I stupidly thought, ‘They’re queuing for jury selection’.
“But no, it was for the public gallery to get into the Graham Dwyer trial. I got a real shock. It just felt ghoulish to me. This is someone else’s life here.
“I was asked if I wanted to go in, but I couldn’t listen to that. It was hard enough to listen to it on the news, let alone to be actually in the court,” she told The Herald.
Shocking: The actress described the experience as ‘ghoulish’ | VIPIRELAND.COM
The RTÉ star admitted that the experience got her thinking about what it would be like to be chosen as a juror in such a high-profile case, which inspired her book’s character development.
“I think it must really feel like you’re on an episode of Judge Judy, yet you’ve got someone else’s fate in your hands,” she added.
