Sadbh @irish-times.ie
All was tranquil in Farahy churchyard in Co Cork last weekend when Sadbh went there to pay homage to Elizabeth Bowen, well aware that this year is the 100th anniversary of her birth, but totally unaware that we were visiting Kildorrery and Doneraile on the actual anniversary: she was born on June 7th, 1899. Walking first the Lower Avenue, and then the Upper one, it was amazing to see just how much of the stone from her beloved, demolished Bowen's Court still lies upon the plain. Touring the area and taking in the site where once stood Mitchelstown Castle, scene of the unforgettable garden party of August 1914 described in Bowen's Court, it becomes searingly clear just how the world of the Anglo-Irish in this pocket of the country fell asunder from that moment on.
Just 10 years from that day Mitchelstown Castle would, as she wrote, be just a few bleached stumps on the plateau, its terraces obliterated, grass growing where its saloons stood. "Many of those guests, those vehement talkers, would be scattered, houseless, sonless, or themselves dead," she said; it was " a more final scene than they knew."
Thankfully her legacy was far greater than bricks and mortar, as two upcoming events illustrate. On July 2nd-4th, a conference called Elizabeth Bowen, A Centenary Celebration, will take place mostly in the Aula Maxima in UCC, under the auspices of the Faculty of Arts International Summer School in Irish Studies. Speakers will include Prof Hermione Lee, Terence Brown and Dr Heather Bryant Jordan of Harvard University.
Other highlights include a reading from The Last September by actress Fiona Shaw; a discussion of the recent film of that book with its director, Deborah Warner; and a reading by novelist John McGahern. For more information, phone 021 902918.
Another Bowen event will take place as part of the Sense of Cork festival later this month when Robert O'Donoghue will talk on the writer's life and times on June 24th in the Douglas Library. O'Donoghue, poet, critic and dramatist, knew Elizabeth Bowen and will be putting her work in context. The festival office is at 021 310597.
It seems that the readers of Thomas Harris's novels are not quite as obsessive as his characters. When his latest opus, Hannibal, the long-awaited sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, hit the shelves this week, no psychotic stalkings were reported among customers desperate to get their hands on a copy.
While Waterstone's in Cork had many inquiries about the book and expected a rush on it, no one was actually camping out waiting for the thrill of handling an early copy and, though Easons in Galway had plenty of copies, they had sold only a few by mid week.
Whatever it says about Dubliners, we have to report that Easons on the capital's O'Connell Street was most surprised to find itself sold out by Tuesday morning only hours after it went on the shelves. "It's most unusual to sell 30 copies of a hardback novel in a morning," Easons admitted, but ,wasn't rushing to call it a best-seller just yet. "The Monica Lewinsky book sold well for a day or two then sunk without trace. Still, I think Hannibal Lecter is a stayer, unlike Monica."
NEWS reaches Sadbh of a great initiative aimed at helping the 25 per cent of the Irish population with poor literacy skills. High profile writers including Roddy Doyle, Deirdre Purcell, Sheila O'Flanagan, Dermot Bolger and Patricia Scanlan have all written books for a series entitled Open Door which will be published by New Island Books this autumn.
The series is the brain child of Patricia Scanlan, whose own book for the adult literacy market, Second Chance, did very well last year, and Frances McManus, head of the Finglas Literacy Group. All the writers they approached agreed to give their royalties to literacy charities.
Those with a love of local history should keep an eye out for a book published this week by Seamus Mac Annaidh. Better known for his novels and short stories in Irish, Seamus is also an incurable local historian. His book, Fermanagh Books, Writers and Newspapers of the 19th Century, gives details of over 120 writers and 25 local newspapers.
Incidentally, An Gum, one of the oldest Irish language publishers in the business, and with over 2,000 items to its credit, one of the most prolific, has just brought out its new five-in-one catalogue. Included is one of the best selling Irish books ever in a new form - O Donaill's Irish English dictionary is now available on CD disc.
THE media's love of lists is second only to their love of bookmakers odds. The most recent literary event to be given the turf accountant treatment is the first Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction which will be announced in London on Monday. Apparently Ladbrokes are currently offering 2/1 odds on John Diamond's C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too to scoop the impressive £30,000 prize, while William Hill's favourite is Ann Wroe's Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man at 5/2.
Judges of the prize include Cherie Blair; scientist Lewis Wolpert and broadcaster James Naughtie. The benefactor behind the award is a retired businessman who, most unusually, wishes to remain nameless.