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After enjoying number one non-fiction bestselling success in its first seven weeks of publication, Ruinair continues to sell strongly. The Dublin-born author Paul Kilduff finished novels such as Square Mile, The Dealer and The Headhunter before he decided to write this travel book about the cheap Irish airline.
“Kilduff travels to places he never knew he wanted to go that are probably not quite where he thinks they are and he is not sure what he will do once he gets there, including beautiful Beauvais, cosmopolitan Charleroi, electric Eindhoven, heavenly Haugesund and tropical Tampere… On his miserly pan-European exploration he reveals the secrets of the new travel phenomenon favoured by one hundred million plus passengers annually. And his advice to fellow travellers in the ultimate airport holiday book? - “Don’t get mad, get even - Get a one cent airline ticket.”
Today at Blissful Travel, Paul Kilduff talks about how he got the idea to Ruinair, managed the transition from fiction to non-fiction and have kept his writing career alive for 10 years. He also shares some travel writing tips, reveals his future projects and includes a terrific description of Spanish Seville.
E.J: When did you get the idea to write Ruinair? Had you travelled with low-budget airlines much before?
P.K: I got the idea to write Ruinair when I was marooned in Malaga airport in Spain a few years ago for 10 hours by Ryanair. At the time I was writing fiction so I thought I would write a stroppy letter to their customer service dept and then I later decided to go one better and write a book about travelling all over Europe on the same airline and other budget airlines (none of which I had not used previously), and all for the same total outlay as my fare to Spain which was €300, so not so low fare after all.
E.J: How did you manage the transition from fiction to non-fiction?
P.K: I had written four fiction thrillers for Hodder Headline and then all changed there when they were bought by a French company and my editor left and in all that change they declined my fifth book which in hindsight was a good thing. I still wanted to write and always loved travel so I decided to write non fiction in the travel genre. I was originally thinking about writing a travel book about Germany (everyone else does Spain, Italy and France) but then Malaga airport happened. People say that fiction writers write the best travel books because they can tell a story, can write about characters they meet, can create suspense and can set a scene. The most important thing when moving from fiction to non-fiction is to have a good idea for a commercial book on a topic you like - everything else follows easily.
E.J: What are your tips for aspiring travel writers?
P.K: My tips would be travel as much as you can, observe everything, get off the beaten track, avoid the usual sights and attractions, look for a theme in your writing. Don’t just go see the top 10 attractions and write about them. If you are writing amusing travel stories then pray that something goes wrong because as John Cleese once said of his TV show Fawlty Towers; ‘It’s only funny when something goes wrong.’
E.J: You have kept your writing career alive for ten years, how do you do it?
P.K: It’s easy to do something for 10 years if you enjoy it. I do not see writing as a chore but as a creative outlet, an interest and almost like a hobby although it has its rewards. I think every genuine writer wants, and needs, to write. It’s true that I tired a little of writing financial thrillers so then I changed genres to travel writing.
E.J: We would love to hear about your future projects. What are your plans? Any new book in progress?
P.K: I am presently working on the sequel to Ruinair, which is a book about visiting all 12 new countries of the EU, mostly in Eastern Europe. The book is about 75% complete. So far I have been to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Malta. I have plans made to visit the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Cyprus in the coming months. The book will be called Ruinairski and will be published in Feb 2009.
I am also completing a short book featuring the best quotations from Michael O’Leary, the Chief Executive of Ryanair, called The Little Book of Mick O’Leary’ to be published in late 2008, for example: ‘‘I’m an Irish peasant at heart. I grew up on a farm in the Irish countryside, and now I live on a farm in the Irish countryside. You would impress fucking nobody if you drove to the paper shop on a Sunday morning in your Ferrari. They’d think you were a gobshite. And you probably would be. A big tractor, now, they might be impressed. But it doesn’t get to the shop fast enough for me.’
E.J: I’m curious to know, of all the places you flew with Ryanair, which was your favourite?
P.K: There were many great places I flew to where I expected to have a great time, such as Barcelona, Berlin, Venice and the like, and I did.
However the best surprise for me was Seville in southern Spain which in my book I described reasonably succinctly as follows; ‘Civil Seville represents Europe’s optimal summertime city break destination; a small, efficient and navigable airport with zero delays, a 15 minute public bus ride to the city centre for 2 euros, shopping in Zara Home at Nervion Plaza at a fraction of any Dublin prices, the 4-star Novotel next door with a roof top pool to savour guaranteed blue skies and thirty degrees plus, open-air dining and mazes of tapas bars, a La Liga topping and UEFA Cup winning Sevilla soccer team, new 2-bed townhouses for only 150,000 euros, an open top bus tour which fortunately speeds through the barren remnants of the Sevilla 1992 Expo but lingers amongst the fine international residences of the 1929 Ibero-American Expo, a street tram system so new that it glistens, the inspiration for a hundred operas (Don Juan and Carmen attend the Marriage of Figaro?), tourists from Spain rather than from Essex, the heady aroma of orange blossom, the biggest Gothic Cathedral on Gods earth with a landmark Giralda minaret tower, a mesh of Islam, Jew, Gypsy and Christianity, horse and carriage rides through the religious grandeur, a river cruise from the Torre del Oro down the Gaudalquiver river made famous by that Chris de Burgh song and a two hour walking tour of the achingly photogenic Barrio Santa Cruz old town where the only information imparted by the guide which I dispute is that Seville is most famous for sending all its oranges to the UK to made into marmalade.’
E.J: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
P.K: I was fortunate that I did a day job for several years which allowed me to travel on business within Europe, North America and Asia. However one place I never got to on expenses was Australia and that’s where I would like to go. I have two very good friends from college who live in Sydney and I am sure that they would be amazed/ delighted/ horrified if I turned up on their doorsteps to stay for a few weeks. The one reservation I have is enduring the 24 hours in a plane to get there, but at least the trip will not be made on Ryanair.
Editor’s Note: Ruinair was published in February 2008 by Gill & Macmillan, Ireland, and entered the Irish non-fiction bestseller list at no 1. For more information or to purchase your own copy of Ruinair, visit publishers Gill & Macmillan.
What the press has to say about Ruinair:
”Ruinair is an entertaining travel book based around the destinations you can visit on this much-used but maligned airline. This is a razor sharp travel guide. VERY funny, sure, but be warned, if the book fails to please, there is no refund.” - Sunday Tribune
“This is a thoroughly humorous, witty and evocative book. Kilduff has produced a travelogue every bit as good as McCarthy’s Bar, and one that promises to be a must-read in airports and on airplanes for many years to come.” - Evening Echo.
“It’s chocks ways for a breathless tour of the low-fares revolution. Kilduff has done his homework and displays a keen eye for bizarre detail, settling on the quirks of our European neighbours with touching exuberance. His no-holds-barred style echoes O’Leary himself, which should be a compliment. It’s not half bad. There are worse ways you could while away the wait for your next Ryanair flight.” - Irish Mail on Sunday.
“Kilduff has a neat sense of irony when balancing his own and other people’s discomfort, with the motivation that brings us all back to Ryanair: it’s cheap. He can be a droll and perceptive writer. His dispatches from the hot-spots of Liechtenstein or San Marino are witty and engaging. A quirky study of a modern phenomenon, Ruinair is the ultimate airport book. You may even see it sold on Ryanair flights, if Michael O’Leary can find some way to make a buck from it.” - Sunday Business Post
“Kilduff brings considerable and stylish descriptive powers to the stampede boarding and bussing experience we all know so well. His strength is the variety of destinations he visits including non-Ryanair ones amongst them. This is a 2008 Homer’s odyssey.” - Travel Extra Magazine
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