The Keyes to life

Celebrated author Marian Keyes talks to Psychologies about milestones, good intentions, and feeling younger than her years

She may call herself an 'ordinary alcoholic', but there is nothing ordinary about bestselling novelist Marian Keyes, whose contemporary tales of relationships, family, and the ups and downs of life have earned her millions of fans.

In January, she celebrated 30 years of sobriety, feeling 'pride, pleasure and delight', posting a heartfelt Instagram message to those who are struggling with alcohol issues. Today, she openly admits that she still goes to support meetings regularly.

'I'm just an ordinary alcoholic, trying my best to stay sober one day at a time,' she says. 'It doesn't go away. It's not like you're unwell and then you get cured. But meetings work for me.'

There have been other landmark events lately, too: a portrait of Keyes was recently unveiled at the National Gallery of Ireland, she's about to celebrate 30 years as a published author, and, last year, she turned 60 - although she insists she doesn't feel it: 'I felt fine at the time because I've never minded about getting older. I've always felt that as I've got older, life has got easier in terms of what people expect from women. Becoming invisible has definitely got a lot going for it!

'But I've felt weird in that I feel much younger than 60, and, in a way, that my life is still waiting to start. I realise now that people don't ever really grow out of this. Between HRT and the fish oils, I feel a lot younger than 60!"

Keyes has gone through huge peaks and troughs since her debut novel Watermelon was published, including periods of clinical depression when she was unable to sleep, read, write or talk, and many therapies - both conventional and alternative. She's also gone through the menopause, which she describes as 'awful'.