Cecelia Ahern

Bestselling author Cecelia Ahern joins Mark Goodier to choose ten songs that have soundtracked her life as she releases her latest novel, Love Unlocked, including tracks from Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Gene Kelly.

Cecelia relives her early life as the daughter of Irish Taoiseach and Good Friday Agreement signatory Bertie Ahern and how life in his shadow influenced her writing style. She relives her early passion for music including her own short-lived music career with pop group Shimma and her family ties to the industry through her brother-in-law, Westlife's Nicky Byrne. This open conversation explores how she developed her passion for music through classic records she received as gifts and how she showed a passion for writing before she started at school.

Her debut novel PS, I Love You released in 2004, launched her into superstardom. Selling more than a million copies worldwide the book was optioned for a Hollywood movie in 2007 starring Hilary Swank, Gerrard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Connick Jnr and Kathy Bates. Cecelia has established herself as one of the biggest authors of her generation with more than 25 million copies of her books sold in 30 languages across the globe. In 2022, her anthology of short stories 'Roar' was picked up by Apple TV with Nicole Kidman, Cynthia Erivo and Alison Brie leading an all-star cast. Now Cecelia returns with her latest novel 'Love Unlocked'.

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 2.