`Get an all-over tan with only the radio on" is the rather sassy slogan attached to a new summer series on RTE Radio 1, which was publicised at a reception in Waterstones on Monday night. The idea is that by listening to the new show, Reading In The Shade, you can catch up on all your reading without the bother of reading - writers including Joseph O'Connor, Maeve Binchy, Pat McCabe and Nuala O'Faolain will read from their own work each week, leaving you with your hands free to apply sun tan lotion or hold your umbrella, as the case may be.
On Monday, a few of the readers gave a taste of the series including Maeve Binchy, who has just finished a new novel called Tara Road, which is due out in September, and who was accompanied by her husband Gordon Snell, who has also just finished a book for children called The Mystery Graves. Joe O'Connor was there accompanied by his fiancee, London-born director Anne-Marie Casey. He is now working on a screen version of his novel The Salesman for Scala Productions, which produces Neil Jordan's films. They are planning their September wedding. The third reader was actress Pauline McLynn who has been asked by Roddy Doyle to read from his book, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. She was heading off to Belfast to record a short story for BBC Radio Belfast, and then straight to Kilkenny where husband Richard Cook of Bickerstaffe is preparing a spectacular outdoor production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.