When Dua met Claire (or why I can’t wait for the next odd pairing)

The pop star, the enigmatic author, the potty-mouthed humorist and Paddington: what magical combination will be next?

Do things really happen in threes? Two unexpected and magical things happened in May. If I were superstitious, I’d say the third is now overdue.

The first great thing was that Dua Lipa chose Claire Keegan’s 2022 novella So Late in the Day for her monthly book club. I’m a long-time fan of Dua Lipa for many obvious reasons. Her music is fun and catchy, and apart from being a pop icon, she’s also a travel influencer, literary taste-maker, fashion icon, activist and key-holder to the city of Pristina, Kosovo.

All this energy and activity would be annoying if she didn’t have consistently good taste. (The Bianca Jagger bridal suit homage at her recent wedding to Callum Turner is a case in point).

Plus, she seems like she’d be a genuinely good hang. In August last year, a clip of Lipa effortlessly dancing in Ibiza with a wine glass balanced on her head went viral. One fan’s caption for the clip, “she really is good at everything”, summed up Lipa’s stature as a seemingly superhuman figure.

Claire Keegan, by contrast, is famously excellent at one highly specific thing, short-form fiction. She’s a reluctant public figure and has described herself as “about as solitary as you get without being a complete recluse”. Critics and readers admire the elegance and brevity of her prose. (She has said, “I don’t mind doing less and doing it well”.) So Late in the Day is one of my all-time favourite works of fiction. I’ve read it at least twice and listened to the audiobook.

So, I love both Dua Lipa and Claire Keegan but they are a surprising combination of characters. Lipa is endlessly energetic and omnipresent. Keegan is quiet, reticent and enigmatic.

I was nervous to listen to the interview, wanting them both to shine, and they did.

So Late in the Day is a story about a failed relationship, and about misogyny in modern Ireland. One thing I love about the story is the way Keegan treats misogyny as a dreary mental affliction. It’s not a dramatic story about any egregious cruelty; it’s a story about banal entitlement and miserly failures of imagination.

I was delighted to find that Lipa appreciated the story for some of these same reasons I did. In her introduction to Keegan, she noted the contrast between So Late in the Day and the sensational horror of “manosphere” misogyny. The pair spoke about Keegan’s love of tension, as opposed to drama, and it was wonderful to see Lipa, who plays stadiums, take such a strong interest in Keegan’s solitary creati