There was a motley collection of novelists, "secret" agents and a sprinkling of stars in evidence at the launch of two books earlier this week.
A number of writers came along to Eason's on O'Connell Street to clap two authors on the back. John Kelly and Anne Enright pose for the cameras, sign copies of their respective books - The Little Hammer and What Are You Like? and read for us as we sip our wine. On the side-lines, is novelist Mary Morrissy who came along to wish them well. "Several of us are going on a tour, jaunting around England at the beginning of April," she says. "This is like a pre-tour warm-up." Writer Sheila O'Flanagan, of Suddenly Single fame, is there too, and newest novelist on the block, Pauline McLynn.
Kelly, presenter of RTE Radio 1's The Mystery Train is with marketing manager, Catherine Conroy. "My future child-bride," he says. They're getting married in Dublin on June 10th but he won't say where "in case of lady stalkers!" he says. Well, he is a star, you know. Another star who turned up to wish Kelly well is his friend Gavin Friday - looking a bit like a pirate with a small earring in each ear. "Mr Friday, gentleman extraordinaire," he calls himself. Blues singer Mary Stokes, who went to school with Enright at St Louis in Rathmines in the 1970s, taking a break from recording, adds even more glamour. What about the three men in suits skulking in one corner? Could they possibly be secret agents? No, they're sales agents in Ireland for publisher Jonathan Cape: Simon Hess, Geoff Bryan and Eamonn Phelan.
Several members of Anne Enright's family are here: her parents Donal and Cora Enright, her aunt, Brid Toal and her brothers Donal Enright, with his son Shane, and Bernard Enright with his three boys Matthew (11), Stephen (eight) and John (four). And standing proudly by is the writer's husband, actor-turned-director, Martin Murphy, who caused all those men in the Braveheart film to moon on the battlefield, when he played an English general. "Yes, the men with blue faces lifted their kilts to me," he recalls. He and Anne are expecting their first child in June.