Book Festival to Draw Big Names

Clare People, Tuesday, 12th June 2007

By Shane Murphy

Award winning novelist Roddy Doyle and Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, will participate in the second annual Ennis Book Club Festival 2008. The famed writers will be joined by a number of other internationally renowned writers, including Joseph O’Connor, Dermot Bolger, Lorna Landvik and Thomas Lynch. The three-day festival running from 29th February to 2nd March is expected to attract hundreds of book club members and book lovers from all over Europe.

One of the main attractions of the 2008 Festival will be the Dublin novelist, dramatist and screenwriter Roddy Doyle. Several of his books have been made into successful films including The Commitments (1991), The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1997). Another significant attraction for literary enthusiasts will be the participation of novelist Louis de Bernières. His 1994 book Captain Corelli's Mandolin has been adapted into a Hollywood movie starring Nicholas Cage, Penelope Cruz and Irish actor John Hurt.

Lorna Landvik is the author of the best-selling novels Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, Patty Jane's House of Curl, and The Tall Pine Polka. She is also an actor and playwright.

Critic, playwright and novelist Joseph O'Connor has long been a literary star in his native Ireland. His historical fiction epic Star of the Sea, for which he is best known, chronicles the chaos aboard a leaky ship voyaging from Ireland to New York during the harsh winter of 1847. His latest book Redemption Falls is receiving rave reviews.

Dermot Bolger is the author of eight novels including The Journey Home, Father's Music and The Valparaiso Voyage. He has had eight plays produced and received the Samuel Beckett Award and two Edinburgh Fringe Firsts.

Meanwhile, the Ennis Book Club Festival Committee confirmed that it had already received bookings for the 2008 Festival from as far away as Wisconsin, USA.

According to Frances O'Gorman, Committee Chairperson, "To receive bookings at this early stage is very encouraging but it does not surprise us. This Festival is the largest of its kind in the UK and Ireland. There are over 150 Library Book Clubs and 300 Private Book Clubs in Ireland alone."

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