Caution to the Wind: A Memoir

Caution to the Wind

Terry Prone got into an argument on a TV show at thirteen. It marked her out as a fearless teenager willing to take on anybody. Soon she was a regular panellist on The Late Late Show. At fifteen, she lied about her age to get into the Abbey Theatre School of Acting, became an actor with the Abbey and starred in a West End production. Later, as Ireland’s Outstanding Teenager, she was interviewed by Barbara Walters on US television.

That was just the beginning of a phenomenal story that made her one of the most successful businesswomen in Ireland from the 1970s, training people all over the world in communications while publishing more than twenty books and thousands of newspaper columns.

But at the heart of this book is the love story that forced Terry to throw caution to the wind. Because she fell in love with Tom Savage. Father Tom Savage. All hell broke loose. He was fired. She was fired. They weren’t allowed to marry.

The two of them fought back. Tom became the first producer of RTE’s Morning Ireland and Terry was picked for the team setting up the Gay Byrne Hour. They set up a business where they trained captains of industry and politicians. Their company became a household name.

Filled with laughter and love, with triumph and disaster, Caution to the Wind is an honest, funny account of an astonishing life. While Terry Prone is a seasoned writer, Caution to the Wind is the first book she has written about her personal life, and it proves to be thoughtful, evocative and engaging.

Terry Prone is a communications expert, author and business speaker. Her wide-ranging CV includes working with RTE, the Catholic Communications Centre and Bunny Carr’s Carr Communications, before she, her husband, Tom Savage, and son, Anton, set up the Communications Clinic in 2008. An award-winning short-story writer, her novels have been published in several languages. She is a columnist with the Irish Examiner and has appeared on media across Ireland, the UK and the US.