The first print run of Gerard Dawe's new book of prose, The Rest Is History, had almost run out before the Dublin launch party in the Winding Stair bookshop on Tuesday had really started. The epitome of modesty, Gerard remarked rather drily that it did help to have an essay about a rock star in your book; he was referring of course to his discussion of Belfast culture in the early lyrics of rock star Van Morrison. Dawe, a friend of Morrison's, said the musician had read the piece and laughed: "He corrected some of my grammar. The book, which also contains a piece on Stewart Parker's play Pentecost, started off at a literature festival held by Newry's Abbey Grammar school last year that resulted in a new publishing company, the Abbey Press. Playwright Thomas Kilroy, who travelled from his Mayo home to do the honours, spoke about his own writing projects at the moment.
He is working on a screenplay of his own play, Madame MacAdam's Travelling Theatre, to be filmed by Channel 4 under the direction of Cheek By Jowl's David Donnelly. He has also delivered a novel to his agent who "like all agents" seemed to have gone to India. Film-maker Donald Taylor-Black, the maker of documentary series The Joy, was also there. His next project for RTE is a programme about Micheal Mac Liammoir to be screened next year to mark the centenary of his birth, while he also has a documentary in train for BBC Northern Ireland about the hordes of Belfast folk who make the trip to Mallorca each summer.