West Cork author on nature, acting, and dates with Oliver Reed

“HANDS in the earth, head in the air. I think that might describe me,” says Fiona York.

The West-Cork author’s newly-published memoir, A Life In Many Acts, portrays a fascinating life divided between two worlds; that of the glitz and glamour of the stage and film, and that of the muck and mud of organic farming in West Cork, as well as Waterford and Sligo.

“All my life I have mixed gardening and performing, and it is a beautiful mix,” says Fiona.

I would recommend it to anyone.

“After the adrenaline rush of being surrounded by talented people, of trying to learn lines, of trying to do something close to what the director is looking for, there is the coming home part, getting my head out of the clouds - fingernails filthy and joints creaking as another row of something is planted. Grounded once again.”

The 85-year-old Waterford native has had many adventures over her long, rich life. Hence the memoir.

“My mother died when she was 101,” says Fiona. “I have a bit of catching up to do before reaching that place.

“But life is unpredictable, and so, at 85, I want to remember everything I’ve experienced. 

I want to write about the adventures that make up my story, some of which brought pain and loss, but others that contained a lot of happiness and the sheer delight of living.

Travelling from Waterford to Kenya was an adventure and a half.

“When I was 11, my father decided he wanted an adventure,” says Fiona. “The 1950s here were difficult for dad and he resigned from his job in Waterford, and he got a job with a large import-export business in Nairobi.

“It was a huge adventure,” recalls Fiona, who describes her first sighting of the huge plains in the book.

“My mother, her two dogs and I were on the boat for three weeks, stopping off at various ports.

“I attended boarding school where all the pupils were totally white. That’s the way things were then. It was a small school and I loved it. When it was time to go back to school after holidays, my mother would be upset, but I wasn’t!

Kenya was an amazing experience, but Fiona had other things on her mind.

“I went back years later, and I appreciated it more, she says. “I thought at the time that it was the back of beyond, I didn’t want to be there.”

What did she want?

“I wanted to be an actress and I couldn’t wait to get to London. After my final exams, my mother arranged for me to go to Guild school to study music and drama, despite my father’s opposition. 

After my first year, I switched from music to drama, and he didn’t notice!

“I didn’t finish the course though, I got a theatre job in the Isle of White, with a weekly repertory company. Our schedule was exhausting but I was young, and I didn’t care. It was great training.”

Fiona met and dated the hell-raiser Oliver Reed - who lived in Churchtown in North Cork - in London. 

“He was into the ladies! We were an item for a while. When I tell people this, they seem astonished that I could have been involved with someone they considered such a reprobate! He was a bit of a philanderer, but I didn’t take much notice. In those days he was a drinker, yes, but a moderate one and a lovely person to be around. The heavy drinking came much later, after his success. He ended up marrying someone else.”

Fiona paints a picture of the swinging ’60s and all the excitement and glitz that went with that era, bringing it to life.

Then tragedy struck.

“My second brother, Jeremy, died unexpectedly. We didn’t know how. It was an awful time in my life. We very close.”

Fiona went through other tumultuous times, travelling to Hollywood and afterwards meeting a man who abused her terribly.

“I was obsessed with Hollywood,” she says. 

But when I got there, I couldn’t wait to get out. It was so false, and the film business was so sordid.

Did she experience the infamous ‘casting couch’?

“It was borderline,” says Fiona. “I could have. However, I did get to meet Paul Newman and John Huston, who was involved with a friend of mine.”

Back in London, Fiona met a man and they had a son together. She left him and went to live in a commune in Gloucestershire, where she renewed an early interest in growing things.

“The relationship ended in disaster,” says Fiona. “I was pregnant with Barnaby, and I left with difficulty. I fled to a friend of mine, who was my birthing partner, and she still is my best friend. In Gloucestershire, I liked the way of life, it was like a little village where people grew their own. I thought about coming back to Ireland to buy a small place with a small acreage and grow things on a commercial basis.”

She met her husband, Tim, on the boat back to Ireland.

“I had already encountered him in a health food shop where we passed the time of day,” says Fiona. “And then a month later, there he was on the boat! Tim York.”

The couple went into business together in Cork. “We were able to buy a house because I sold my cottage in Fulham. I got a fortune for it!

Fiona and Tim uprooted a few times, ending up in West Cork.

“We had two children, Nathanial and Bella, who both live abroad,” says Fiona.

While she was deeply involved with Tim in setting up organic businesses in West Cork, Waterford, and Sligo, and became a pioneer in the West Cork artisan food renaissance, Fiona still indulged in her other love, acting.

I was often away for long intervals. That was tough on Tim. I enjoyed my stint on Fair City, I worked with a lovely bunch.

Unfortunately, Fiona’s marriage broke up when she was 72. She writes about how she found this extremely difficult but managed to find her feet again.

“Tim was 15 years younger than me. It was fine when we were younger, but the age gap became a problem as we got older.”

Fiona wrote a piece for the Bealtaine Festival in Waterford, which was very well received, and as a result she decided to write a memoir.

“People asked, why don’t I expand it into a book? So I set to it. I’ve always written,but the book took on a whole new life. I’m delighted, and got such a kick out of it when it was finished.”

What is life like now for Fiona?

“I live in Union Hall, nearer to humanity, where I have a 50 metre garden with a poly- tunnel. I’m a vegetarian so that is very important to me. I love it. My garden is my huge pleasure.”

A Life In Many Acts is a pleasure to read. And there are many acts within it. It shows the author to be a keen observer of the world around her. She paints a beautifully rich portrait of her years in Ireland, Kenya and Britain, her time in theatre, the excitement of 1960s London, and her return to work with the soil of her native country. Fiona writes with great candour about the failures and heartbreaks that came, including the loss of her marriage and the struggle to find a foothold in life again.

At 85, Fiona says: “I look ahead, I can’t escape the past though. It has made us what we are.

“Sometimes, as I write, I wonder if what I am saying is true, or did I make it up? 

At times I feel ridiculously young, at other times ancient as the bones creak and ache.

“The years pass so quickly. When you are young you long to be grown up, for the years to pass swiftly. Now the days do pass slowly, but the years absolutely fly past. I have been here a long time, many years, but I want some more.

“It was Tony Newley and Leslie Bricusse who wrote the wonderful musical, Stop The World I Want To Get Off. But no. I don’t want to get off. Not yet.”