Thriller writer selling five-bed 1970s home ideal for parties

Clothes, music and design from the 1970s have swung back into fashion - so maybe now is the time to buy a 1970s house. A perfect example is Battleford, on Church Road, Killiney, Co Dublin, a large two-storey house with a funky, open-plan layout that is ideal for large families who like to have plenty of parties.

It is a five-bedroom house with around 4,000 sq. ft of living space, including a one-bedroom guest or staff apartment.

Standing on two-thirds of an acre of sheltered gardens, it is expected to make over £600,000 at auction through Daphne L. Kaye & Associates on May 25th. Battleford has been home for the past seven years to author Victor O'Reilly, who writes thrillers based on international terrorism. His books have appeared on the New York Times best-sellers list and he now intends to spend more time in the US.

Mr O'Reilly uses the entire ground floor of the house as a huge research centre with extra telephone and computer lines installed in a very large room measuring over 800 sq. ft - the size of a large two-bedroom apartment. Angled floor-to-ceiling windows overlook gardens at the side and back of the house, and there is a separate door to the front garden. Also at this level is a wide entrance hall from the main front door, two further offices - one with an en suite shower room, a utility room, store room and guest cloakroom. This kind of space will almost certainly appeal to people who wish to run an office from home as there is enough room to have four or five people working comfortably.

Alternatively, the office would make a superb, light-filled kitchen-cum-living-room with easy access to the garden. A wide, open-tread staircase rises to the upper floor, where the main living and bedroom space is located. Off a spacious landing at the top of the stairs is the kitchen - a big room that is exceptionally bright having tall windows on two sides and a door to a balcony.

It opens directly into a dining-room, which has heavy sliding doors opening into yet another study, and double doors leading into a 20 ft long living-room that is dominated by a monumental Swedish stove.

This room also connects with the study through the same sliding glass doors so that the three rooms together - study, living-room and dining-room - can be opened up for parties. The living-room also has access to a narrow balcony that runs across the back of the house.

Leading off the landing in a different direction is an L-shaped bedroom corridor, with all five bedrooms leading off it. There is a large family bathroom and the main bedroom has an en suite shower room. The guest or staff suite is on the ground floor and has its own front door at the back of the house. It is a comfortable unit with a living-room-cum-kitchen, double bedroom and a good sized bathroom.

Few houses have come on the market on this section of Church Road in recent years - probably because of the extensive roadworks works. That is all over now, the road is widened and its large houses are bounded by new granite walls.