Unleashing the beast
Tina Brown, former editor of the New Yorker, below, who burst into cyberspace this week with the launch of her news analysis website, delved into literary history to find a name for her latest incarnation. The site is called the Daily Beastafter the newspaper in Evelyn Waugh's satire of Fleet Street, Scoop. Why? Because, she says, it's her favourite novel of all time: "For those who prefer Henry James, let's just say the beast knows its way through the jungle.'' The site will, says Brown, be a speedy, smart edit of the web from the point of view of what interests its editors. Brown is obviously following in the footsteps of her friend Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post. What Waugh would have made of it all we'll never know but the 21st century online version of The Daily Beast(thedailybeast.com) is hopping and worth a browse.
Another Booker party
Some people have Eurovision Song Contest parties, others have vernal equinox get- togethers, but for book fanatics the big one is Man Booker final night. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown libraries will mark this year's bash on Tuesday at 8pm in County Hall, Dún Laoghaire, with panellists Declan Hughes, Claire Kilroy and Alison Walsh who'll discuss the shortlisted titles and ponder whether Sebastian Barry can win with The Secret Scripture. The night will climax with the announcement of the winner from the glitzy dinner at London's Guildhall. Tickets, €5, are available in all Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Libraries.
On the Move
News that Colm Tóibín, longtime a Picador author, twice Booker shortlisted and winner of the International Impac Dublin Literary Award, had moved to Penguin during the week understandably had the publishing house over the moon. "We're delighted to welcome a writer of his stature and prowess to the Viking list,'' said Venetia Butterfield of the Penguin imprint Viking. Tóibín said he was delighted too, as someone who like many other people had educated himself courtesy of Penguin books. The deal is for two new novels and a collection of short stories, the first of the novels, Brooklyn, coming out in May. It's the story of Eilis Lacey, emigrant from a small Irish town to Brooklyn in the 1950s - a novel about "the terrible choice between personal freedom and duty .'' So why the move? "My editor at Picador for many years, Peter Straus, left a few years ago to become managing director of the literary agency Rogers, Coleridge and White. He then became my agent instead of my editor. After Peter left, I worked with Andrew Kidd in Picador and had a very good relationship with the company and with him. In April, Andrew too left to become an agent,'' says Tóibín. "Mary Mount who is an editor at Penguin had worked at Picador previously and she was someone I always thought I would like to work with.'' Delighted at her response to Brooklyn, it seemed natural for him to move to Penguin, he added.
Dublin on literary tour
Dublin has been listed as fourth on a list of top literary hotspots for tourists by the travel website TripAdvisor.com, coming ahead of New York, Paris and St Petersburg and much to the delight of Dublin Tourism which responded pronto with pride and details of the literary landmarks that draw visitors to the city - from Shaw's birthplace on Synge Street to the Joyce Tower in Sandycove. TripAdvisor's Dublin highlights include the Dublin Writers Museum and the National Library. London topped its list, followed by Stratford-upon-Avon and Edinburgh.
Though it's mainly capital cities on the list Concord, Massachusetts makes it in at number six because of its associations with Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne and its Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where groupies can pay their respects to those literary giants in its Author's Ridge section.