Jubilation all round as news went out on Tuesday that Colm Toibin made the Booker prize shortlist with his just-out novel, The Blackwater Lightship. Toibin was in London when he got the news, and professed himself delighted - he celebrated over dinner with his publisher at Picador, Peter Strauss, and when a couple of friends arrived to offer congratulations, champagne corks popped.
The night before the shortlist was announced Toibin had coincidentally been in the company of his pal, Andrew O'Hagan - who also made the shortlist with his first novel, Our Fathers. Colm hosted the Dublin launch party for O'Hagan's book in his city centre Georgian home earlier in the year, but swears that neither of them mentioned the forthcoming Booker announcement when they met up last Monday night.
The other shortlisted authors (and their odds at Ladbrokes) were Anita Desai (3/1), J.M. Coetzee (4/1), Adhaf Soueif (6/1) and Michael Frayn (3/1). The odds on Toibin's and O'Hagan's books are 5/1 and 3/1 respectively. If you want to get the flavour of The Blackwater Lightship, Toibin will be reading from it at the Dublin launch in Waterstone's, Dawson Street on Wednesday at 6.30 p.m.
PUBLISHERS will usually use any means at their disposal to publicise their new titles, but the folks at Virgin Publishing found they were stymied before they even began. As part of the campaign for the October publication of Daniel O'Donnell's Autobiography, they planned to produce some life-size cardboard cut-outs of the singer.
But at the last minute they were persuaded that this would be a waste of resources, because fiendish O'Donnell fans would snaffle them in an instant. "Anything that is brought out about Daniel is immediately snapped up," was Virgin's Pippa Wright's explanation. The cardboard cut-outs were cancelled.
GOOD week for Cathy Kelly when it was reported that she has signed to HarperCollins, in a three-novel deal rumoured to be worth a seven-figure sum. There is still one novel by Kelly, Never Too Late, due out this November, under her existing contract with Headline in Britain and Poolbeg in Ireland. Adrian Bourne, the managing director of HarperCollins's trade division described the signing of Kelly as "a major acquisition for us" - and a fairly major deal for Kelly too presumably.
`I'm almost sure it's the only library system with a catalogue available in Irish," said Orla Nic Aodha of St Patrick's College in Drumcondra. "Unless there's some obscure library in Hawaii that has one." The college held an evening of readings and wine in the library on Thursday with speakers including John Banville, Eileen Battersby, Vincent Banville and Alan Titley, to celebrate their new library system, Talis.
This is the first time the college library, which is linked with DCU, will have an automated library system and the first time that readers will be able to look at a library catalogue on-line in both Irish and English. Check it out at www.spd.dcu.ie.
If you haven't got a copy of The Whoseday Book, the diary/anthology compiled by the Irish Hospice Foundation for the millennium, then the question is, why not? If you have, then pop down to the Library in the RDS in Dublin tomorrow where more than 170 of the contributors to the book including Gerry Adams, Jennifer Johnston, Anne Haverty, Paul Brady, Brenda Fricker, Marian Keyes, John Rocha and Frank McGuinness, will be on hand to sign your copy. Admission is on production of The Whoseday Book, but don't worry, books priced £30 will be available on the day.
A new Irish imprint is always a welcome sight and particularly when it's one for children. On Thursday, Egmont Children's Books held a drinks party at the Ark in Dublin's Temple Bar to celebrate its new Irish list, The Mammoth Irish List and to introduce its launch authors to the booksellers and the press. The Mammoth line-up includes such well-known authors as Carlo Gebler, Sam McBratney and Mary Murphy as well as newcomers such as Marilyn McLaughlin and Maddie Stewart.
For the readers, the event to catch is in the Ark today when Mary Murphy holds Create A Book sessions at 11.30 a.m. and 2 p.m., tickets £5, and there's a chance for children aged from seven to 11 to meet the author, Michael Morpurgo, at 11 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. For more information, call the Ark at 01 6707788,
Congratulations to Nicholas McLachlan who was given the Martin Healy Short Story Award last Sunday at the Scriobh Literary Festival in Sligo. McLachlan, who is the son of poet Leland Bardwell, took time out from his busy schedule as director of the Dingle Writing Courses which are in full swing all autumn, to head up to Sligo and accept the cheque of £1,000 from former winner, Claire Keegan. Keegan is a good advertisement for the prize - her first collection, Antartica was published by Faber & Faber earlier in the year.
Sadbh