Then There Was Light is an anthology, mostly memoir with a couple of fictional stories and a few poems, about people’s experiences of when the electricity arrived in their area and the effect it had on their lives. It’s now 70 years since the rural electrification scheme began. Stories reveal the hostility to “the electric”, often due to fear about the cost or a [...]
25th October 2016 was a big day for book awards. There was the Man Booker award announcement, the Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards shortlists were announced and the Carousel Aware Prizes for Irish Indie books award night was held in Dublin. Guess which one I was at?!
Carolann Copland was the brainchild behind Writing CAP, determined to bring recognition to the quality of independently published books and she also thought it would be great if the charity [...]
If you’re looking for a farming focused, funny book for Christmas, you won’t go wrong with Farming is a Funny Business. John and Andrew Arbuckle put out a call last year for funny stories and jokes amongst the Scottish farming population and curated them within this book which is sold by the Scottish charity, the RSABI.
Here’s one example:
A hill walker was [...]
It’s becoming quite the trend for authors to have two or even more launches now, usually one in Dublin and one in whatever part of the country they come from. I love going to book launches but I do quake at the prospect of having them. There I was thinking I was getting away with just one quick launch by having it at the Ploughing Championships when Noeleen and Leona from The Book Centre in Wexford contacted me to ask [...]
I’m going to the Wexford launch of Felicity Hayes-McCoy’s latest book in Enniscorthy library on Thursday evening and very much looking forward to it. Hachette sent me a copy of The Library at the Edge of the World and I’m delighted to review it.
I have to admit that once I was a couple of chapters in, I [...]
