Brandon Press of Kerry is celebrating 20 years of publishing. It will hold readings and talks in Galway, Belfast, Dublin, Cork, London, Newcastle and New York.
The Killing of the Tinkers, the second Jack Taylor novel by Ken Bruen, will be launched in Charlie Byrne's bookshop, Galway, on April 18th. The Guards, Mr Bruen's first book in the series, has been optioned for film rights by De Facto Films of Derry.
St Martin's Press, the New York publishers, have taken options on both books, while Australian publishers, Duffy and Snellgrove, have taken the Australian rights, plus rights to the third Jack Taylor novel on which the Galway author is now working.
On April 20th, at the Skellig Hotel, Dingle, the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, will discuss his writing. Brandon is publishing new editions of Cage Eleven, Mr Adams's account of internment in Long Kesh, and his The Street and Other Stories, published originally in 1992.
On May 7th, The Yard by Wilson John Haire will be published as part of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Festival. A discussion on the difficulties of writing in a sectarian society will follow. Speakers include the Progressive Unionist Party leader, Mr David Ervine. Brandon will publish a biography of Mr Ervine by Henry Sinnerton next September.
The Brandon imprint was founded in Dingle by Steve McDonogh and Bernie Goggin in 1982. The company has had its ups and down since then, but when Alice Taylor's To School Through the Fields was published some years ago, a sure fire winner was on the cards. The book has sold 450,000 copies, making it one of the best-selling books ever published in Ireland. Her four subsequent books also achieved record sales.