GOING THE SHEEP ROUTE

READING the newspaper can be fruitful for a novelist seeking a good story that's how Charlotte Bronte got the idea for Jane Eyre, after all and Anne Haverty is no exception. Her first novel, One Day As A Tiger (Seeker and Warburg, £9.99 in Britain), which has just been published, was inspired by reading a newspaper article about a flock of genetically engineered sheep that had been "improved" with human genes. That's when the character of Missy came to me," says Haverty.

Missy is a lamb with human genes, purchased by a pair of farming brothers from Tipperary, Pierce and Martin Hawkins. Adopted by Martin as his special pet, Missy falls prey to Martin's obsession with Pierce's wife Etti, and is eventually sacrificed in the disastrous events that ensue.

Missy comes across as a creature doomed to live in the shadow world between sheep and human, but, as the novel is narrated by Martin, we are never sure whether this is merely his wishful projection. Perhaps she is no more human than his fantasy, just as Humbert Humbert, the narrator of Nabokov's Lolita, keeps us in a state of uncertainty with regard to the real sexual inclinations of his eponymous nymphette.

Haverty has read Lolita, and agrees that her novel is about similar transgressions and self justifications, but adds that her major influences have been French novelists, such as Flaubert "I admire the lovely, limpid impressionistic quality of French fiction."

Her novel is full of lyrical descriptions of Tipperary farm life "Tipperary is one of the great undiscovered counties of Ireland. It is very beautiful." Now in her late thirties, Haverty grew up in Holy Cross and Thurles "My father came from farming people and he wanted to be a farmer, but he was not the eldest son. He became a guard, and the fact that he wasn't a farmer was a big tragedy in his life"

Although Haverty recalls being on farms "all the time" as a child, her feelings about farm life had the "romantic connotations" of one who is always a visitor "I was far more positive about farming because I was at one remove from it." Martin Hawkins is infatuated with life on the land in this same detached way in his case, because he has spent many years trying to complete a doctorate in history at Trinity before admitting defeat and returning home to the family farm where he puts in a day's work when he feels like it. But his romantic vision of the rural idyll is leavened by his satirical observations of the machismo rituals of young farmers.

Haverty was nervous about writing a "rural" novel, because there have been so many Irish novels in the rural tradition but "the farm I've written about is a very modern one and the idea of the half human sheep is different." The novel defies stereotype in other ways, such as the fact that her narrator is a man "Women are always supposed to write about other women. But I don't think men really are that different from women. I didn't find it hard to write from Martin's perspective. It probably would have been harder if he had been a sports fanatic. But he's more of a donnish type."

She prefers to write in the first person "I also prefer to read novels written this way. I believe in them more." She is currently at work on a new novel, written in a woman's voice, and set in early 19th century London.

She admires many Irish writers, without being conscious of an influence, including Edna O'Brien, Joyce, Flann O'Brien and Dermot Healy. She doesn't like to think of herself as belonging to any tradition, but when I mention the tragicomic mood of her novel, she admits "I'd love to think that I belonged to the tradition of Irish humour. I didn't set out to write a humorous novel, but that's the way it turned out. I was surprised and pleased."

Passages describing Martin's guilt ridden pampering of Missy from plying her with chocolate to washing her with scented shampoo every night, are hilarious "My favourite refrain then, and you would have had to agree it was hers too if you saw us together, was the nursery rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb I changed it to Martin Had A Little Lamb, and would be composing new verses suitable to our situation as I walked about the humour grows darker when we see how Martin is prepared to turn on the poor creature and use her shamelessly if it brings him any attention from Etti. Etti herself is, in Haverty's words, "dim and innocent", which shows up Martin's lovesick passion in all its droll and, at times, sinister self delusion.

Haverty notes "After studying English, French and History in Trinity, I did the HDip. When I was teaching, I found the dim students much more interesting and lovable than the clever ones. I had imagined it would be the other way around."

SHE did not enjoy teaching, and tried freelance journalism instead "I knew I wanted to write but I wasn't sure what. Journalism gave me a transitory satisfaction. But I knew it wasn't what I really should be doing."

She was commissioned to write a biography of Constance Markievicz for Pandora Press (which was published in 1989) "I was pleased to publish a book, and I hadn't known much about Markievicz before that. I found her much more intelligent, committed and likeable than the public image of her, as someone who was only interested in glamour. She wrote very well. I enjoyed reading her letters and diaries."

But in the end, writing a biography was "not the real thing" either. "The real thing" was the novel Haverty was trying to finish although it never saw the light of day "It was an experimental, dislocated novel to express the dislocation of modern life."

She was also composing poetry, and keen to learn about writing screenplays. With filmmaker Frank Stapleton, she directed a TV documentary for Channel 4 and RTE entitled He's Got The Whole World In His Hands "It was an irreverent look at the Pope's visit to Ireland." As a result, she won a scholarship to the European Film School in Ebeltoft in Denmark. She also received a European Script Fund Award for The Girl "It is the story of two young girls in rural Ireland in the 1960s, and what happens after their mother has a breakdown. Their father falls in love with the girl who comes to look after them. It's a coming of age film, really."

And a welcome relief to the plethora of Irish films about boys' coming of age stories. But Haverty still hasn't been able to find a producer "It has been very frustrating."

Undaunted, she sat down three years ago and started to write One Day As A Tiger "I keep pegging on. Even if One Day As A Tiger hadn't worked, I would have tried again." She received "valuable suggestions" from her "close friend", the biographer and poet Anthony Cronin "That sort of support is a real boon.

She was also sure, in her own heart, that she had produced a piece of work of which she could be justifiably proud "I knew it was the kind of novel I'd like to read myself." She sent it to her agent and it was snapped up by Secker within a week.

Now that the novel has been published, garlanded with rapturous praise from the likes of Brian Moore and Colm Toibin, she does not want to be "ghettoised" as a "woman writer". It implies that you write ascertain kind of thing in a certain kind of way. At one time, it was a handy school to be a part of, but I think that it has served its purpose and we can all stand on our own as writers now."