Late-night host and comedian Graham Norton releases novel inspired by his Irish roots
The comedian started a rumor that William and Kate would be on his show.
— -- Late-night host Graham Norton said his first novel, "Holding," was inspired by stories he heard during his childhood in Ireland.
The comedian host of "The Graham Norton Show" on BBC told ABC News he decided to write the book after he hit 50 years old.
"I kept saying I wanted to write a novel and thought, 'Well, I better do it.' So when I turned 50, I wrote a novel, like it or not," Norton said.
Norton said that growing up in rural Ireland gave him plenty to write about.
"Ireland’s one of those places where there’s just so many stories. If you kind of drew an Irish village as it actually is people would go, 'But this is ridiculous. This is unbelievable that every house has a scandal,'" he said.
"I just picked a few stories from my childhood that I knew from various places we grew up and wove them into this story," he explained, adding that it was "a pleasure to spend time in my mind there."
Norton's show has been on the air nearly 20 years and has included a full lineup of A-List celebrities.
But the show's hilarious host shot down rumors that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would appear as royal guests on his famed red chair.
"I read that rumor too, and we got very excited about it. We were like, 'Where did this rumor come from?' And then we looked into it, it came from me," he said laughing. "I started that rumor, so I'm pretty sure there's no truth to it."
