Loose leaves:Islands. They'll be talking of little else at this year's Franco-Irish Literary Festival in Dublin from April 27th to 29th. Under the banner Talking about Islands/A Propos des Îles, writers, mainly from France and Ireland, will look at the notion of the island as an idealised place, a focus for utopian dreams and fantasies and projects whereby to build a purer world.
Then there's the idea of the desert island as an ideal locale for meditation and the exploration of self; the concept of island cocoons where customs are easier to preserve, and whether that is a good or a bad thing; and the darker side of islands, as prisons, places of banishment and exile. Also up for discussion will be the relationship of an island to the mainland, and the overall question: is the isolation implicit in an island still possible in the era of travel and globalisation?
John Banville, Peter Sirr, Joseph O'Connor, John F Deane and Michel Déon (above) are among those taking part - the latter, a writer who has lived in Ireland for decades, is guest of honour this year. The Chester Beatty Library and the Coach House at Dublin Castle are the venues.
Big book club gathers in Ennis
With an estimated 150 library book clubs and 300 private ones - is that all? - in existence around the country, it was only a matter of time before there was a book club festival, and one kicks off in Ennis next Friday, running until Sunday. RTÉ presenters Ryan Tubridy and Páraic Breathnach of the The Eleventh Hourwill be broadcasting from the Co Clare town on the eve of the occasion. Could US novelist Philip Roth ever have imagined that he'd be the subject of intense scrutiny on Ireland's western seaboard? Because that's what will happen, when book club members from around Clare review Roth's Everyman, a winner of The Tubridy Show/Barry's Tea Book Club book of the month. Writers participating in the festival include Patrick McCabe, Edna O'Brien, Thomas McCarthy, Carlo Gébler, Rosita Boland, Mary O'Malley, Rita Ann Higgins, Evelyn Conlon, Dermot Healy, Ré Ó Laighléis and Charlie Bird. Allied events include a chocolate tasting and a talk on John McGahern's papers by archivist Fergus Fahey. www.ennisbookclubfestival.com.
Get ready for the Diana deluge
Following the intense re-creation of the week Princess Diana died in The Queen(the film starring Helen Mirren as a monarch out of touch with her people) the publishing world is limbering up for the 10th anniversary of Diana's death on August 31st, with various books in the offing. One is by Irish novelist Eoin McNamee. Called 12.23and published by Faber, it will explore the murky side of what's been called the most famous car crash in history. There's also The Accident Man, a first thriller by Tom Cain, to be published by Transworld.
The highest profile one will be The Diana Chroniclesby Tina Brown, former New Yorkereditor, whose book we're told will penetrate Diana's world. Brown has been a keen Diana observer and the book should be a page-turner, even on such a sadly over-mined subject as this. Brown wrote some years ago that Diana lived among phantoms all her life, so no wonder her ghost was so brilliant at keeping us guessing. "That old wedding reel of her traipsing down the aisle at St Paul's with that preposterous creamy train seems doubly sad now that we know her sideways look into the congregation was not for a friendly smile but for the sight of the woman she already knew was her deadly rival." Brown's book will come out on this side of the Atlantic with Century.
March Hare finds new land
More than 50 Newfoundlanders will descend on Ireland next week as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations of the March Hare festival, a celebration of literature and music that has been running in Newfoundland for two decades. The Centre for Newfoundland and Labrador Studies at Waterford Institute of Technology is hosting proceedings in Ireland. Events will take place in Waterford on February 26th; Tigh Filí in Cork city on February 27th; in Ring on February 28th; Kilkenny Castle on March 1st; Enniscorthy on March 3rd; and Dublin on March 5th.
Details from Liam Rellis. Waterford Institute of Technology. Phone 051-845552, e-mail lrellis@wit.ie.