BEST friends Sarah Breen and Emer McLysaght turned what started out as a college in-joke into a phenomenon.
Their character, Aisling, a kind of Irish Bridget Jones, became a bestseller in their native Ireland.
It pipped David Walliams to the coveted Christmas No.1 slot.
Oh My God, What A Complete Aisling (Michael Joseph) is out in hardback on May 3.
DESPITE becoming firm friends in college, Emer and I were in our late 20s before we managed to get away on holiday together.
I was living in Arizona at the time and she came to visit, her suitcase bursting at the seams with essentials from home.
We decided to road trip the 350 miles from Phoenix to San Diego.
The journey took close to six hours and we passed the time screeching along to Florence And The Machine and trying to name all 50 states, which is difficult when you’ve grown up in rural Ireland.
When the saguaro cacti of Arizona gave way to more desolate countryside we were so close to the tall black fence separating the US and Mexico we could almost touch it.
We were about to hit the Californian border checkpoint when Emer realised her passport was nowhere to be found.
They don’t mess around with security on the way into California, and we were ordered out of the car while officers poked around our luggage and demanded to know if we had any fruit or vegetables concealed about our persons.
Perish the thought. Eventually the passport was located and we were allowed on our way.
The hotel we’d booked at the last minute turned out to be a gem and our room had sliding doors that opened right out on to the beach.
One night, after dinner and six too many margaritas, we treated ourselves to a Lincoln town car home instead of a taxi. Isn’t it mad how you spend like a Rockefeller when you’re on your holidays?
Nothing delights Emer and I more than a good hotel breakfast. The same is true for Aisling who would rather eat a bee than miss a meal she’d paid for.
We’ve decided that’s why so many people have warmed to her – she’s extremely prudent and doesn’t try to hide it. You wouldn’t catch Aisling spending her last $50 on a Lincoln town car!
It’s true what they say – there’s a little bit of Aisling in all of us.
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