When Patricia Scanlan sat down to write a short novel for adults learning to read, she could never have imagined it would spawn a series of books which would be sold in five countries.
Nor could she have imagined that the novellas, written by authors such as Roddy Doyle and Dermot Bolger, would have proved such a success with foreign students, elderly people and teenagers.
The Open Door series was launched in 1999 with works from Vincent Banville, Deirdre Purcell, Dermot Bolger, Sheila O'Flanagan, Roddy Doyle and Patricia Scanlan. The books were reprinted three times and sold over 42,000 copies, while foreign rights went to Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain and Germany. Based on that success, six more books have been launched by New Island Books with the help of the City of Dublin VEC and Bank of Ireland. It all started when adult literacy teacher Frances McManus half-jokingly suggested to Patrica Scanlan that she write a book for adult learners. Frances had spent more than 20 years working in adult literacy with City of Dublin VEC and was embarrassed at the reading material she had to give her students in Colaiste Eoin in Finglas.
Based on the reaction to the resulting book, called Second Chance, she approached New Island publishers with the idea for a series of books. Patricia's literary contacts were used to the maximum. "I am very fortunate in that I have a lot of friends who are writers. Deirdre Purcell, Sheila O'Flanagan and Marian Keyes are all good friends and they really had no choice whatsoever," she says. Other writers willingly agreed.
The books are extremely important for adults improving their reading skills, according to Billy Fitzgerald from Dublin. He has dyslexia and, like many children, it went unnoticed at school. Fitzgerald hid his inability to read from everyone, including his wife, for 30 years.
"You get very manipulative to disguise it. `I forgot my glasses' or `I have a plaster on my finger so I can't write' were just two of the excuses." It was only when his wife discovered his secret that he decided to do something about it. But when he went to an adult literacy course, he found the reading material was better suited to six-year-olds.
"I remember the first book I was handed was A Tale of a Tooth. . . it can be pretty harrowing to be handed children's books," he says.
Fitzgerald feels strongly that anyone with a reading problem should be encouraged to do something about it. "These classes don't just teach someone how to read and write. They open up a whole new life."
His new life includes poetry writing, and he is now working on a collection of his poems. Meanwhile, Patricia Scanlan is planning a third Open Door series, including three non-fiction books. She is also thinking about a poetry collection.
"It was a totally new way of doing it, to use popular writers," she says. "I'm surprised no one thought of it before."
The Open Door series of books is published by New Island Books. Each volume costs £4.99
