A literary roundup
The history boys
The stellar cast in the School of History at University College Dublin will be further enhanced in January when Oxford historian Roy Foster (below) comes in for a semester. He's working on a book arising from his Clark lectures at Cambridge University earlier this year on Words Alone are Certain Good: Literature, Nationalism and Politics in Nineteenth- Century Ireland. He'll be using the college library and archives, and though he won't have specific teaching duties at UCD it's anticipated that he will give some seminars and workshops.
Meanwhile, the department's Richard Aldous, who has a visiting fellowship at Vassar College in New York where he's finishing research on his book Reagan & Thatcher(due out in 2011), will be back in Ireland next month for the publication of Bertie Ahern: The Autobiographyon which he worked with the former Taoiseach. Also, after a stint in America, Diarmaid Ferriter whose book Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland(Profile) was launched in the National Library on Wednesday, has now taken up his post as professor of modern Irish history at UCD.
Broderick celebrated
The awful repressed atmosphere around sexuality in 1960s and 1970s Ireland so preoccupied Athlone writer John Broderick (1924-1989) that it's great to see his work discussed in Diarmaid Ferriter's above mentioned book. Dwelling on the picture of Catholic marriage that emerges in some Irish novels as unflattering, highlighting the absence of sexual fulfilment, Ferriter picks out Broderick's The Pilgrimage(1961). He also talks about The Fugitives (1962) "which explores the opposition between self-assertion through sex and acceptance of authority and faith''. Next weekend during the Athlone Literary Festival, Broderick will be further discussed in his Co Westmeath home town. On Saturday, Eamon Maher will explore the Francophile side of Broderick who lived for a time in Paris and acknowledged the influence of François Mauriac on him as a writer. Other events include a talk by Dermot Bolger; Colm O'Gorman reading from his memoir Beyond Beliefand a literary and cultural walk of Athlone. The festival runs from Friday to Sunday. See athlone.ie/literaryfestival
All about business
The shortlist for the Financial Timesand Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award is: Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalismby George A Akerlof and Robert J Shiller; Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain Worldby Stephen Green; Imagining India: Ideas for the New Centuryby Nandan Nilekani; In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel; Lords of Finance: 1929, The Great Depression, and the Bankers who Broke the Worldby Liaquat Ahamed, and The Match King: Ivar Kreuger and the Financial Scandal of the Centuryby Frank Partnoy. The winner, announced on October 29th, gets £30,000 (€33,690). With a slew of books already coming on the great Celtic Tiger crash it would have been good to see one of them make it to the shortlist – but more are on the way so maybe next year. See ft.com/bookaward
Bloodlines
Dacre Stoker, great nephew of Dubliner Bram Stoker, who has written a sequel to Draculacalled Dracula The Un-Deadwill be talking about how he used Bram's notes as the basis for the book at Pearse Street Library, Dublin on September 30th at 6.30pm
books@irishtimes.com