Claudia Carroll Books In Order

Publication Order of Primrose Square Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Anthologies

Claudia Carroll is a fiction and romance author from Dublin Ireland that is best known for the “Primrose Square” series of novels. She has lived in Dublin where she spent much of her time working as a TV actress and in theatre before she decided to become a full-time author. For more than a dozen years, she starred in Ireland’s answer to “Eastenders” that was named “Fair City.” She loves to describe her character on the show as a terrible old cow that was hated by everyone. Carroll wrote her debut novel “He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me”in 2004. The novel would get much critical acclaim when it was published and went on to become a bestselling title. “Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man” the third novel that she published was also a very popular work that would later be optioned and is to be made into a TV series on Fox TV. Her fourth novel has also been optioned and is about to be made into a screenplay by Robin Swicord, an Academy Award nominee.

Carroll was born in Dublin and went to University College Dublin, the Gaiety School of Acting, and the College of Music. Since then, she has been working as an actress in Ireland and is best known for her role in Fair City where she was cast as Nicola Prendergast. It took her more than a year to write her debut novel “He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me,” even though she had the idea at the back of her mind for more than fifteen years. As a struggling and young actor, she had been lucky enough to land a role in a movie that was shot in County Monaghan in the Castle Leslie that happened to be the director’s ancestral home. The Leslie family was full of eccentric characters that Carroll thought it would be more interesting to point the cameras at them instead. They were such interesting characters and the fact that the film was shot in an ancient home that was coming to pieces made it even more interesting. From shooting the film, she thought that the story of a family down on their luck that would have to rent their house to an LA film crew would make for a great story.

Similar to many other authors, Claudia Carroll has been writing for as long as she can remember. She remembers that she used to scribble down stories and later graduated to embarrassing rough drafts for novels. However, she was just like most people and believed that book deals were something that only other people got. As such, much of what she wrote she would shove into a drawer never to be looked at again. It took her quite a long time before she developed the courage to put something out there. As for her acting, she had always been showing off ever since she was a child and was taken to study under the famous drama teacher Betty Ann Norton. As a teen, she decided to take a bachelor’s in commerce degree at University Colege Dublin but she was soon at DramSoc. Carroll never got to use her BComm degree and soon after leaving college, she started working on “Rimini Riddle with Tara Flynn” then an obscure children’s programme. She then got a role at “Fair City” when Niall Mathews the producer of the program saw her performance in some play and thought she would be great as Nicola. It was at “Fair City” that Claudia Carroll also met the novelist Anita Notaro who mentored and encouraged her since she had just published her first work of fiction. Anita would introduce her to Marianne Gunn O’Connor the agent that she still works with to this day.

“The Secrets of Primrose Square” by Claudia Carroll opens to the scene of a mother standing in the pouring rain of a dark night in Dublin. She is outside the house of the boy she believes caused the death of her daughter, Ella that she is mourning. Back at home, Melissa, her daughter is dealing with her own grief and worries about her father serving in Lebanon with the army and her mother who went out in the night. Jayne a nearby neighbor that is also a widow is concerned about Susan and her daughter Melissa. She wants to help the family but she needs to make changes to her own life too and is not so sure that her daughter-in-law and son will look positively at what she intends to do. There is also an aspiring theatre director named Nancy who is running away from scandals and incidents that had happened in London. The connection between the three stories and the interaction between the women make for some interesting reading. Melissa is a character that inspires sympathy as she is left dealing with a lot as a twelve-year-old. But she gets the kindly neighbor in Jayne even if she tends to speak to the ashes of her dead husband on the mantelpiece.

Claudia Carroll’s “The Women of Primrose Square” is the story of three characters Frank the dependable man, Violet the Hardcase, and Emily the recovering alcoholic. Frank is wallpaper but he is a darling of his family even though he is mostly taken for granted at home and work. On the day he turns fifty, he makes a decision that blows up in his face. Walking into his home, he is pleasantly surprised to find that most of the people he thought never cared for him are there for his surprise birthday party. Emily who is has been disowned for drinking her parents’ money away. She has just been released from a rehab program and is looking for something to do to prevent a relapse. Leon her AA sponsor gets her onto the 12 step program, which includes making up with everyone that she had hurt. It is then that she begins to acknowledge and see how much hurt she has caused and starts to make amends. Hardcase is the woman that Frank meets who has been resident in the Square for years and everyone finds her despicable. She is known to write some hard-hitting letters to anyone that dares to visit her home or anyone that messes around on the square. Frank’s son Ben was the victim of her tirade when he darkened her door looking for Halloween candy as an eight-year-old. His parents had received a nasty letter complaining about the boy scratching paint from her door by his persistent knocking.