Ever since he quit university and Ireland, to jump on a plane bound for New York, Graham Norton has been surprising himself. "I never felt like a confident child, I never felt like that guy, I always felt very timid. So I don't quite know where I got the confidence to go, 'I'm leaving, I'm filling a backpack and I'm out of here', but I'm so glad I did," Graham says, still rather amazed as he flits back four decades to the moment his jet-setting life took off.
The sharp-witted chat-show host and TV personality is ready for cocktail hour in his London flat having recently returned from seaside West Cork, where he now spends three to four months a year recharging at the stunning period home he bought in the mid-2000s in Ahakista on the shores of Dunmanus Bay. This pretty village, on the amusingly named Sheep's Head peninsula, is just an hour or so's drive from Graham's childhood home in Bandon, and has become a haven for the TV star whose current existence is a lot less frenzied than his well-spent younger years. Back then he flitted between Britain and the US, building a career that led to his current status as one of TV's hottest properties.
"If someone had told me as I waited to board a plane to New York in 1983 that one day I would move heaven and earth to spend three months every year in the country I was desperate to flee, I would have told them that they were crazy," he says. But Ireland has somehow morphed into a homing beacon for Graham. It's where he recently chose to get married - which we'll come to later - where he frolics on the beach with his dogs (only one dog currently, having lost his soulmates Madge and Bailey in recent years) and also where he worked on his latest opus, which he confesses is another surprise.
"There was a time in my life when I thought I would never manage to write a novel, so to be publishing my fourth feels a little surreal and very special," he sighs.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der XMAS 2022-Ausgabe von The Australian Women's Weekly.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der XMAS 2022-Ausgabe von The Australian Women's Weekly.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
