Book signing: Clodagh McKenna

Now, to top off the book signing excitement in Dublin at the moment, our very own Clodagh McKenna can be added to the list.


Sweet little Clodagh will be at Eason's on O'Connell Street on Saturday 27th October at 1pm to sign copies of her new book Clodagh's Kitchen Diaries. It looks like a lovely book with recipes for pasta dishes, bakes and all the things you'd expect from Clodagh and I'm sure it will make it's way into lots of Christmas stockings.
 
We wish Clodagh best of luck with the launch of this lovely new book.

'My Family and Other Animals'-Book Signing by Clare Balding

If you love dogs and watch Crufts every year as we do or watch the gee gees then you all know Clare Balding. A TV presenter, sports journalist and all round 'good egg', she is the epitome of the jolly hockey sticks brigade and I think she's great. Her mellow voice and obvious passion for her job  make her a pleasure to watch.


She has recently written a book, My Animals and Other Family playing on the well known Gerald Durrell book My Family and Other Animals, which I can remember pinching off my dad's bookshelf and reading when I was about thirteen- and I'm sure Clare did the same.


Clare Balding will be signing copies of her book in Eason's, O'Connell Street on Friday 26th October at 1pm.

'Nigellissima'- Nigella comes to Dublin

Listen up all you Nigella fans! The queen of cooking, naughty Nigella is coming to Dublin for a book signing.


She will be in Dubray Books on Grafton Street on Saturday 3rd November at 10.00am to sign copies of her new book Nigellissima. I'm sure the queues will be long and the area crowded so arrive early if you are interested in seeing the goddess herself.
I'm a great fan of Nigella and have several of her books. They are  a pleasure to read, chatty and humorous. my favourites are How to be a Domestic Goddess which has great baking, savoury bakes, breads etc and Feast which breaks menus down by events and holidays; Easter, dinner party, first date, kiddy party and is one of my most returned to cookbooks.

Irish Publishers-The Blackstaff Press

The Blackstaff Press was founded in 1971 by Jim and Diane Gracey  and is one of Ireland's leading publishers. It publishes on a wide range of subjects embracing fiction and non-fiction including history, politics, cookery, memoir, sport, fiction, poetry and travel. Bought by Michael Burns in 1980, it was in 1992 given the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Award for ‘producing books which have genuinely added to a greater understanding between the peoples of Ireland and Britain’ and also named UK Small Publisher of the Year by the Sunday Times. In 1995 Blackstaff was acquired by The Baird Group

Recent publications from The Blackstaff Press include; Hooleygan by Terri Hooley and Richard Sullivan, Twisted Root by Patricia Craig, Search Dogs and Me by Neil Powell and Titanic: Icon of an Age by Michael McCaughan.

Hooleygan: Music Mayhem Good Vibrations by Terri Hooley, former record company owner and the man who signed The Undertones, is a book that will appeal to anyone who was aware of the music scene at that time. Owner of a small record shop in Belfast which he opened in 1978 with just £40, he was around just at the start of the emerging music scene. A story about music, it is also a history of trying to run a business in Belfast through its darker days.


A Twisted Root: Ancestral Entanglements in Ireland by Patricia Craig is the history and the stories of her ancestors. Starting with her many-greats grandmother who travelled from Stratford-upon-Avon to Lisburn as part of the Ulster Plantations and childhood escapes from the massacre at Scullabogue to founders of the Orange Order and active members of the the IRA in the 1920s. It is a story that covers all walks of life, creates a picture of an ever changing family and a vivid sense of Irish history.


Everyone loves a good dog story and Search Dogs and Me; One Man and His Life-saving Dogs by Neil Powell is one of those. The author has worked for forty years with  dogs being involved in all aspects of rescue- mountain searches, drown recovery, collapsed building searches and drug detection in Ireland as well as all over the world. But as I know from a lady who has a dog that works in Dublin Airport customs, these dogs are family pets as well, being walked daily and living in the family home and being members of that family with all the emotion that this entails.

Finally, Titanic: Icon of an Age by Michael McCoughan published to coincide with all the anniversary of Titanic's launch is written by an internationally recognised expert on the subject. The book contains over 250 images, some of which have never been published before. These include pictures from the archive of Harland and Wolff such as extracts from newspapers, journals and White Star publicity,postcards, advertisements and letters.

For other books see http://www.blackstaffpress.com/Home.aspx

 

 

James Tait Black Prize-The Best Winner

Following on from the 'Best of the Booker' award given in 2008 to Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children (a worthy winner),  the James Tait Black Prize is to recognise the best winner of that award over its history as a way of commemorating 250 years of the study of English Literature in the University of Edinburgh.  Given annually by the university it is the oldest literary award in Britain running since 1919. It awards two prizes, for the best work of fiction and the best biography but this 'best of' the James Tait Black is to be for fiction alone.
The shortlist is of six has been chosen by the students of literature which will say something for their timeless quality.
 The University of Edinburgh
I think this is a great idea; getting the young people who are studying these books to make the selection. It is an unexpected list but has great breadth of subject. It is awards like this that can get new books brought into the restricted 'canon' of literature and all the politics that the word carries with literature students. I for one am delighted to see The Road on the list, already considered a modern classic.
The six shortlisted novels are:
The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene (1948)
The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Sparks(1965)
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter(1984)
A Disaffection by James Kelman(1989)
Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips(1993)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy(2006)

The award winner will be announced in December.

Skerries - Coffee 'n Cake

The town of Skerries is spoilt for choice for its size when it comes to eating out. There are several fine restaurants, pub diners and take-aways and then of course the coffee shops. Not to play them down- they are not just coffee shops as you will see here.

Seasons on Strand Street sell the most mouth watering cakes (see photo below if you don't believe me.) When I visited the other day there was fresh crusty boules and savoury pastries as well as the oh-so-tempting cakes. I am told they serve evening meals Thursday to Saturday as well.


Across the road and along a bit from Seasons is Olive. Olive does a fabulous range of baked biscuits, cakes and cheesecake as you can see from the photo, but they also have to-die-for fresh deli; pesto, hummus, tapenade, cheese and meats. My fave here is the sharing plates of deli meats and the dipping trays with olives.



Parachute around the corner on Thomas Hand Street is my favourite to bag the comfy brown leather sofa with a cup of coffee and the newspaper. Serving great value breakfasts, bagels and scones with jam and cream. The offer the other day was sausage sandwich with tea or coffee for €4- can't argue with that!

Photography + Skateboarding

If you are into photography exhibitions in any way and you have an interest, however loose,in skateboarding then this exhibition is for you. Before I go any further I should point out that this is not a run-of-the-mill framed photograph show. It is, as the organisers explain "an exhibition about a book of photographs rather than an exhibition of the photographs found within the book." They have reduced the book down to what is a 'grid of spreads' that span the gallery so that the viewer can see the images as they appear in the book. Uhm, different, and well, clever!


The book of photographs by Richard Gilligan is called DIY and records skate environments in the USA and Europe often made of found materials to make temporary constructions or by adapting abandoned urban areas.
*Let me explain that my own interest as the writer of this article goes way back to the early 80s when my brothers got skateboards and built their first ramp of scrap wood in our driveway, went to a BMX/skate site in Hackney and made my parents drive to the suburbs of Los Angeles on our holiday to buy Vans. The 2001 docu-movie Dogtown and Z- Boys, a great history of how the Santa Monica skaters first came together, breaking into abandoned backyard swimming pools,  later to become celebrity skaters when picked up by the corporate sponsors revived this interest.

This book looks really great. The exhibition is only on until 26th October so if you're interested catch it quick. The book is for sale in the gallery and at www.1980editions.com
 http://www.thecopperhousegallery.com/exhibitions/25/overview/