Recently returned from a publicity tour of Canada, Antonia Logue wants nothing more than to curl up with a good book - preferably her own. Yes, it is "really nice" to be awarded The Irish Times Prize for Irish Fiction for her first novel, Shadow-Box, but she can't wait to get out of Dublin and back to her current home in Cork where she is in the middle of writing her second. But between travels there is time to talk about Shadow-Box, which she explains was conceived after reading the celebrated Paul Muldoon poem, Yarrow. It was within those lines that she first learned of the contradiction-filled characters Arthur Cravan the "pugilist poet" and his long-time love Mina Loy. The briefest of allusions to their story intrigued her and in November 1995 she began researching their lives. During the course of her research she came across the story of legendary boxer Jack Johnson who was an acquaintance of Cravan. The seeds of Shadow-Box were sown.
Logue talks vividly about Johnson's struggle against injustice and racism which dogged him ever since he famously became the first black world heavyweight boxing champion in 1908. And about Loy, the feminist literary icon who, for all her strength, was unable to control the often tumultuous affair that was the great love of her life. Her sense of solidarity with these characters is palpable. She talks of wanting to "get inside Mina's head" and of wanting to tell her, Cravan and Johnson's story with as much honesty as possible. "There was so much information it became difficult to know what to keep in and what to leave out. In the end I stayed pretty faithful to their story. What had drawn me in the first place were the facts," so she reasoned the facts would also draw in the reader. But Shadow- Box is by no means a biography and there is much of Logue's character in the book, she says. The result is a literary tapestry that has its foundations in fact but is embroidered with the colourful threads of Logue's imagination.
Logue says that Shadow-Box - a novel that spans continents - may never have come about if her journalism career had taken off in a more spectacular way. Since 1990, as a student in Trinity College, she had been writing book reviews and articles for a variety of publications (including this one) but it was not the type of "glamorous" journalism career that could have distracted her from her ultimate goal. Anyway, she had wanted to write books for "as long as I can remember". Much has been made of the £66,000 advance she received after sending the prologue of Shadow-Box to an agent but it was not the financial recognition of her talent that gave Logue, then still in her early 20s, the most pleasure. "I was glad of the money but it was the prospect of being published that was the best thing; it was the holy grail," she says. She comes across like an excited child on Christmas morning when she talks about receiving the brown paper package of Shadow-Box through the letter box. "That was the biggest deal," she says. "I wanted it to be read."
The roots of this almost single-minded desire to be published are slightly unorthodox as tales of inspiration go. The book that influenced her most growing up was Noel Streatfield's classic novel Ballet Shoes - other trainspotterish fans of the book may be interested to know that Logue's favourite Cromwell Road resident was the tom-boyish Petrova. After winning a writing competition when she was 12 she bought a biography of the English author with her book token. "I discovered that she used to sit in bed all day dictating to her secretary who would then read aloud what she had written." This version of literary life held enormous appeal for the budding author.
Logue was born in Derry, grew up in Brussels and now lives in the West Cork fishing village of Castletownsend with her boyfriend fellow author Eamon Sweeney. She prefers it to her last home in the Liberties in Dublin, where she never really felt safe. "Halfway up Dame Street your alerts would come on," she says.
The people in Castletownsend know what the couple do but it is hardly ever talked about. Logue likes that. "There is nobody saying, `Did you see that review' or, `You must be pleased with the book jacket'. It is very conducive to getting work done," she says.
Living with another author is also advantageous, she says, although her working day comprises little of the elegant indulgence of Streatfield's. "It is very companionable . . . I work upstairs and Eamon works downstairs and it is great to know if you are having a problem with something you can talk to someone who will understand." When they are not writing the rest of their time is taken up with their "manic" border collie Omes ("The name is a very stupid joke," she says) or spending time with family. Her father is an economist with the EU and her mother is a lawyer. Are they proud of her? "They are pleased," she concedes carefully. "All the books I read growing up I read because they were on our shelves."
The book she is working on now is about an Irish poker player, and she is happy with how it is progressing. The Irish Times award, and the fact that The Observer has named her one of their 21 authors to watch in the 21st century, is all very well but "when you are a writer all you can think about is how the book you are working on is going. At the time that's all that matters."
Pushed further, she says the award won't quite change her life, but there are benefits; "It means I can buy some new clothes," she says.
Shadow Box is published by Bloomsbury