If a week is a long time in politics, the same can be said for the book world. Overnight the autobiography Mo Mowlam couldn't write while in Cabinet - but for which she's said to have brokered a £350,000 deal - suddenly loomed nearer with the surprise announcement that she's resigning as an MP at the next election. Suddenly the imminent publication of the late Alan Clark's second volume of diaries and Michael Heseltine's autobiography paled in Britain in comparison with "The Truth According to Mo". All those detractors who've labelled her a loose cannon must be quaking in their boots now that she's free to let fly. Meanwhile, extracts are expected to appear in a Sunday newspaper tomorrow from political journalist Julia Langdon's semi-authorised biog Mo Mowlam: The Biography shortly to be published by Little Brown.
Because the whole thing was suddenly brought forward as a result of Monday's resignation, finished copies of Langdon's book may not, however, be ready to go into the shops for a few weeks. Between alcoholic parents, a non-malignant brain tumour and all the rumour and recrimination surrounding her departure from politics, both books should be riveting. One titbit Sadbh didn't know until this week was that Mowlam's ex-banker husband Jon Norton, who's just launched a new career as a painter, likes to paint in the nude; indoors of course. In Ireland, inevitably, it's her time as Northern Secretary and its controversial end that people will want to read about. The role of Tony Blair's chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, in her move is expected to be tackled in Langdon's book, so there's plenty to be going on with until the Redcar maverick unleashes her very own version.
WHEN it comes to dictionaries, everyone has their favourites: Sadbh is particularly enchanted by Chambers at present. Penguin isn't a publisher Sadbh would have connected with dictionaries before, but lo! Thumping onto her desk this week came The New Penguin Dictionary, a fine slab of words. "We aim to reflect how people really use language these days," says Nigel Wilcockson, Penguin's publishing director. Slang and lingo is what many of us use as verbal shorthand these days, and if you are confounded by some of the words you hear on the street, The New Penguin Dictionary will be your oracle - for the time being at least, since lingo can be as ephemeral as Irish sunshine. Words and phrases new to Sadbh are: Frankenstein food, food consisting of or containing genetically modified substances; mouse potato, person who spends a large part of their leisure time using a computer, especially surfing the Internet; boomlet, small economic boom; and white van man, a male van driver, especially a driver of a white delivery van, who drives in an aggressive and discourteous manner, in order to meet his delivery schedules. Hmmm. Being a cyclist, Sadbh would venture to point out to the folk at Penguin that such poor behaviour on the roads is not confined solely to men who drive white vehicles . . .
SADBH is delighted to hear that inflation figures have finally caught up with the long-established Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. For many years, the award was £1,000: this year it will be doubled to £2,000. The award is open to poets who have yet to publish a first collection. Entry fee is £10 and the closing date is September 30th. For full entry details, send an SAE to the Patrick Kavanagh Society, Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, or looking up www.kavanaghsoc.org
IT'S always good to see Irish literary collections staying in the country and Thursday saw Michael Yeats formally presenting a number of notebooks, papers, and artefacts which belonged to his father, W.B. Yeats, to the National Library. This is the fourth significant and generous donation made by the Yeats family to the National Library, the others being by George Yeats in 1958 and again in 1964, and then in 1985 by Michael Yeats. Among the new papers now lodged in the library are 100 notebooks and 130 files of loose papers, referring to the occult, spiritualism, horoscopes, and automatic writing. There is also a box of artefacts, including tarot cards.
News from TCD of an upcoming conference which will run from 29-30th of this month entitled "Nation, Region, Identity". This is a joint venture between Trinity, Queen's, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Strathclyde, and different aspects of Scottish and Irish history and literature will be discussed over the weekend. Sadbh's attention is particularly drawn to the Writers' Panel session. Chaired by Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, the writers on the panel will be: Scottish poet Kathleen Jamie, whose Jizzen is on the shortlist for the Forward Prize for First Collection, to be announced on October 4th; Scottish novelist Janice Galloway; Northern novelist Glenn Patterson; Scots Gallic poet Caitriona Nic Gumaraid; and Irish language writer and journalist Liam O Muirthile. They will be discussing the importance - or not - of the role of native language in their own work, and reading extracts from same by way of illustration. More information from 01-6082227.
Sadbh