James Plunkett turned 80 in May, and the Irish Writers' Union is hosting an 80th birthday tribute to him on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the James Joyce Centre. Plunkett is best known for his historical novel about Dublin, Strumpet City, which was published in 1962 and later filmed for television. Dublin has of course provided much of the material for his work. In his 1972 book, The Gems She Wore, he wrote of it: "The sea is at its feet, the Georgian buildings gave it nobility, its squares and its expanses of water made it a place of openness and light and air". That, thinks Sadbh, was before the traffic took over. Speakers on his celebratory night include Ben Kiely, Theo Dorgan, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Peter Cassells and Pat Boran. It's hard to believe that the ever youthful-looking Plunkett is now one of the dozens of Irish letters. It will no doubt be a great night - and a rare opportunity to meet him.
Admission by pre-booked ticket only is £9/ £6. For details 01-8721302.
The biggest book fair in the world, the Frankfurter Buchmesse, opens on Tuesday. No doubt very soon we'll be hearing about the upcoming new stars of the literary world as rights are sold and books auctioned amid frenzy and, well, frankfurters. So what forthcoming goodies will Irish publishers be taking with them to Germany? Gill and Macmillan's big book - in every sense - is its single volume, Encylopaedia of Ireland, which will be some 12,000 pages in full colour. The tome is due out in 2002, and is being composed by a team of writers headed by Brian Lawlor. Gill and Macmillan is hoping for big international sales and reckon it will sell for some 60,000 euros, the currency we will be using by then. That's between £40 and 50 for those of us who haven't made the transition yet.
New Island Books has a book from Berlin-born Peter Jankowsky, whose voice will be familiar to many from Sunday Miscellany. Jankowsky's contributions apparently get a big postbag from listeners, so publisher Edwin Higel saw an opportunity to commission a book of "autobiographical sketches". Although Jankowsky has been in Ireland for 30 years, his book will have an obvious appeal to a German audience. Town House/Simon and Schuster will be selling colleague Kevin Myers's first novel - not entitled An Irishman's Diary, but called The Banks of Green Willow. Journalist Mary Russell also has a book with Town House, Journey of a Lifetime; a memoir based on her life thus far. Award-winning sports writer, Paul Kimmage, has a second book, The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino. And that's just some of what's on the horizon.
SADBH has been sent news from Penguin Books of its revamped shiny sparkly new website, www.penguin.co.uk Right, so what's new in its neck of the virtual woods? This is a big website, with four online magazines, entitled variously: Chapter, literary stuff; Cover, lifestyle, by women for women; Spine, by men for men (do we still have such clear-cut divisions?); and Margin for 12- to 21-year-olds. The site also carries original interviews with Penguin writers and has a "star guest" every month. This month it's Zadie Smith, whose White Teeth was omitted from the Booker shortlist. There's an online interview with her, and a short story, published here exclusively. Through an interactive element to the site, readers will be able to e-mail questions to such authors as Dick Francis and Arabella Weir. They don't say how long you might have to wait for Dick or Arabella to mail you back. You'll have to try it out to find the answer to that.
Irish-American poet Michael Donaghy won the £10,000 Forward prize for poetry in London last week - and kept his long-arranged appointment with the Irish Writers Centre to come and participate in an evening of readings and discussion of American poetry a mere two days later. Some poets might have holed up with the cheque and the champagne after such good news, but not Donaghy, - although Peter Sirr, director of the Writers Centre did tell Sadbh, "he was in great form".
Sadbh