Books newsletter: Ms Readathon; UCD honours David McWilliams; Allingham Festival

In The Irish Times this Saturday, Nina Stibbe talks to Mia Levitin about her new memoir, Went to London, Took the Dog. Former supermarket executive Don Tidey speaks for the first time in 40 years about his 23-day ordeal that transfixed the nation, the subect of a new book, The Kidnapping by Ronan McGreevy and Tommy Conlon. Michael Lewis talks to Hugh Linehan about his book, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, about Sam Bankman-Fried. And there is a Q&A with Donal Fallon about his latest book, The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park.

Reviews are Eoin McNamee on Dirty Linen: The Troubles in My Home Place by Martin Doyle; Kevin Power on This Plague of Souls by Mike McCormack; Edel Coffey on One Woman Show by Christine Coulson; Claire Hennessy on the best new YA fiction; Andrew Clarke on Tremor by Teju Cole; Houman Barekat on Tough Crowd by Graham Linehan; John Walshe on Billy Connolly: Rambling Man; Ray Burke on Lethal Legacy: A History of Ireland in 18 Murders by Fin Dwyer; Donald Clarke on The Cinema of Powell and Pressburger: Romantic Imaginations by Nathalie Morrisr; Lucy Sweeney Byrne on Charles Ignatius Sancho by Patterson Joseph; Brigid O’Dea on Family Meal by Bryan Washington; and Bill Barich on Homegrown by Jeffrey Toobin.

This Saturday’s Irish Times Eason book offer is I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, just €5.99 with your paper, a €5 saving.

The International Publishers’ Association held a Freedom to Publish event at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week with Dee Collins of Mercier Press as guest speaker. She gave a presentation on current and backlist Mercier titles, explaining why Mercier was worthy of nomination for the 2023 Prix Voltaire, which honours courageous commitment to freedom of speech through writing and publishing. She cited Eric Cross’s A Tailor and Ansty, One Day in My Life by Bobby Sands and David Burke’s Enemy of the Crown. Ironically, one of the fair’s opening speeches, which criticised recent Hamas attacks and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, was interrupted by the audience several times. The cancellation of an invitation to Palestinian author Adania Shibli, condemned in an Irish Times opinion piece by Megan Nolan, also overshadowed this year’s event.

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The Forward Prizes for Poetry 2023 winners are Jason Allen-Paisant, whose Self-Portrait as Othello (Carcanet Poetry) won Best Collection; Momtaza Mehri, whose Bad Diaspora Poems (Jonathan Cape) won Best First Collection; Malika Booker, whose Libation (Poetry Review) won Best Single Poem - Written; and Bohdan Piasecki, whose Almost Certainly won Best Single Poem - Performed.

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Thousands of people in schools, book clubs and homes will have their noses buried in books this November as part of the annual MS Readathon fundraiser. Ireland’s biggest sponsored reading initiative invites children, adults and teachers to get sponsored to read as many books as they can throughout the month.

All funds raised go towards supporting people living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and their families. MS is the most common debilitating neurological condition affecting young adults in Ireland. It affects more than 9,000 people in Ireland.

Ava Battles, MS Ireland CEO said: “There is still time for bookworms of all ages to set themselves a reading challenge this November and get involved in the MS Readathon. It’s not too late for people to read along with their kids at night-time or set a group challenge as part of a book club. The Readathon is the perfect opportunity to keep little minds entertained”.

Shirley Keane O’Brien is this year’s MS Readathon Ambassador and is determined to help support MS Ireland which helped her through the toughest days of her life. “I’m delighted to be the ambassador and help raise awareness. I remember it from my two kids doing it in primary school. Now I’ll be doing it and loving every minute of it.

“The MS Readathon is a wonderful initiative because it brings children’s imaginations alive, while raising awareness of MS and fundraising for these much-needed services. I devoured books as a child and reading has had a hugely positive impact on my life, even more so since my diagnosis, so I am encouraging everyone to get involved in the MS Readathon this year.”

Children, teachers, and adults can get involved in this year’s MS Readathon by registering online at msreadathon.ie/home

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The economist and Irish Times columnist David McWilliams is to be awarded University College Dublin’s James Joyce Award, bestowed upon those deemed to have made a “profound impact in a field of human endeavour”.

Presented by the university’s Literary and Historical Society, it is considered to be the highest honour available from a student body.

The society was established in 1855 and counts James Joyce among its former auditors. Past recipients of the high-profile award include the Nobel Laureates Paul Krugman, John Hume, and Desmond Tutu.

“Given your status as an accomplished economist, writer, podcaster and documentarian, it is only fitting that you should be counted among them,” the society said in notifying McWilliams of his nomination.

It credits McWilliams, an author of five books, with making the subject of economics generally accessible and with founding the Global Irish Forum, Kilkenomics and the Dalkey Book Festival.

As well as writing for The Irish Times, Mr McWilliams hosts a regular podcast, contributes to The Financial Times and is an adjunct professor at Trinity College Dublin. He has held roles in the Irish Central Bank, UBS and Banque Nationale de Paris.

He will be presented with the James Joyce Award at a ceremony on October 25th.

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Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK, will publish a lost novel by Nobel Prize-winning author, Gabriel García Márquez. The novel, Until August, translated by Anne McLean, which was lost to the world for a decade, will be released in an English-language edition on March 12th.

The Kidnapping by Ronan McGreevy and Tommy Conlon will be launched on Thursday, October 26th at 6.30pm in Books Upstairs, D’Olier Street, Dublin. RSVP : LAraujo@penguinrandomhouse.ie

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The 2023 Allingham Festival takes place in Ballyshannon on November 8th-12th.

Expanded to a five-day schedule, the 2023 festival will take place in the Abbey Arts Centre and nearby venues. Copies of the programme are available in shops throughout Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo, and online at allinghamfestival.com.

Bestselling author Liz Nugent (Strange Sally Diamond, Unravelling Oliver) will be in conversation with journalist and mystery novelist Sinéad Crowley (The Belladonna Maze, Are You Watching Me?).

Popular children’s author Shane Hegarty will be reading from his “Boot” series, “The Shop of Impossible Ice Creams” and his new stories in Ballyshannon-area schools.

Sunday Miscellany favourite Olive Travers, in a revised, expanded performance of Nets of Wonder: Stories on the Wall, combines her evocative radio scripts with artwork by Barry Britton and music by Eamon Travers. An exhibition of Britton’s artwork in the Abbey Arts Centre will precede the performance, and the new Nets of Wonder scripts, artwork and music are being published by Beehive Press.

There will also be a History Hedge School with History Ireland editor Tommy Graham and panellists John Gibney, Michael Kennedy and Zöe Reid. Margaret, a one-act play based on the life of Margaret Thatcher, will be performed by Rachel O’Connor.

Book launches include Ebb and Flo by Easkey Britton; Finding Fairy Beliefs and Mysteries in Donegal by Keith Corcoran; From Carn to Cluain Barron by Roisin Lee; Nets of Wonder by Olive Travers, Barry Britton, Eamonn Travers.