Finding peace through the pen

Pheme Glass’s home is exactly the kind of modest, half-hidden, literature-laden abode that you hope the person who writes your books will live in.

The Cookstown woman moved to Omagh in 1966 along with her late husband Peter, first settling in McClay Park, before relocating to Gortmore Gardens, where, 30 years later, in a house that rests about 20 feet from the banks of the sweeping Strule River, she still resides today.

When I arrive at the writer’s front door on Monday afternoon, I am greeted by a 79-year-old woman, who long ago perfected the art of the warm welcome.

“Would you like tea or coffee?” she asks as I stepped inside. “I’ve no milk though.”

“Black is grand,” I say.

As the author boils the kettle and shovels freeze dried coffee into my cup, I looked around at a space skillfully shaped by the able hands of time and taste.

The walls are decorated with paintings, drawings, ceramics and photographs, most of which, it transpired, were the work of her children and late husband Peter – whose death 15 years ago propelled Phebe to write her popular trilogy, ‘The Blossom or the Bole.’

The counters and cabinets are replete with eclectic charms scavenged from charity shops. A bloated bookshelf slouches against the wall, its belly bursting with a surfeit of historical tomes and leather-bound verse. “My first love is poetry,” she tells me, when I ask about a framed sketch of Seamus Heaney in her study. Her first ever published book is a collection of poems called ‘Seeds of Memory’.

Setting a cup containing an unappealingly sable solution down in front of me, Pheme asks where I would like to begin.

I tell her that I noticed her first book was dedicated to Timothy Stewart Glass (1967-1969).

“We had just moved to Omagh and Peter was working in Nestles when our first child, Timothy, died. It was awful,” paused Pheme… “Thankfully, Susan was born two months later, which I think saved me. Then along came Shauna and Paula.”

Pheme, who was born in 1945, tells of her early life in Cookstown.

“I grew up in a Protestant family, but I’d plenty of Catholic friends,” she recalls.

“I remember, though, when I met Peter, I was 16 and he was in his early 20s, and I thought he was a Catholic – he being from Moneymore.

“One day we were chatting and I said something about him being a Catholic. ‘I’m not a Catholic’, he said. ‘Really?’ I replied, ‘That’s great. That means you can meet my father,’” laughs Pheme. “But sure that was the time that was in it.”

But contrary to what this anecdote might suggest about Pheme’s upbringing, she says her parents did not raise her with hatred.

“We done what Protestants done in those days, but it was not a sectarian house.”

We chat about Pheme’s books and what inspired them.

“In terms of content, it was my memories of idyllic summers spent with my grandmother in Plumbridge that formed the basis of the first book. She was called Jean Campbell and she was a great woman. The books are about the relationship between two young boys from opposite sides of the so-called divide, who grew up together in the Sperrins, and whose friendship is transformed by WWI. A lot of what is in there is drawn from those summer’s spent playing around Plumbridge.”

The book explores themes of friendship, war, division and love. Readers report enjoying the book’s intimate familiarity with the Sperrins, its keen depictions of the people who populate them, and the evocative, lyrical style in which it is written.

Pheme explains how her husband’s death inspired her to produce her first novel.

“’The Blossom or the Bole’ started out as a simple short story, that I wrote for myself. It was never intended to become anything more than that.

“However, Peter was diagnosed with cancer in August and died in spring. Before he passed away he asked me to promise him that I would not go back on the drink, which I had struggled with for a few years in my early 50s. I promised him that I wouldn’t. But I knew I needed something else to help fill the hole that he left behind. He found strength in his love for me, and I had to do the same. But I needed help – and I found that help in writing.”

Pheme then began a process of expanding her original tale, extrapolating outwards from what she had already written about the boys. Those summers spent in the Sperrins had already given her enough knowledge about the area and its inhabitants. But, if she was going to write a book – or maybe even several – she knew she would have to develop a similarly close relationship with the history of the period in which her story was set.

“It was a lot of work. I read everything from biographies of John Redmond and Josepth McGarrity, to histories of Tyrone, to the reminiscences of republicans, to reports from the ‘Herald and the ‘Con’ from the time.”

Soon after the first book was published, Pheme began receiving rave reviews. Her readers demanded more, pleading with her to finish the story she had started. Obligingly, she wrote another. And after that, to sate the appetite of her readers, a third was published.

“I never expected to write one book in my life, never mind three. It has been hard, but it has helped, and people have really resonated with the story of Paul and William. I’ve probably put my life into the books, in one way or another. I’m now in the process of trying to distil them into a play. It’s not easy, but it feels worth it.”

‘The Blossom and the Bole’ trilogy can be purchased for £10 each or £30 for the collection in Shoe Scene, Top News, MAPS or Nature Trail (where Pheme will be doing a book signing on November 23). People in Cookstown can pick up Pheme’s work in Sheehy and Son’s.