DESPITE the helpful article last wee in this section of the newspaper, no one at the launch of the week decided to get the Lavery Look. So there was a conspicuous absence on Wednesday night in the Hugh Lane Gallery of women wandering around draped in long layers of fabric wearing improbable felt hats. Had they chosen such garb, they would have expired from the heat caused by over 1,000 people crowding in for the opening of the Lady Lavery exhibition and the launch of Sinead McCoole's book on this extraordinary woman.

Twenty seven year old Sinead is a fairly extraordinary woman herself and had the assembled crowd in the palm of her hand during her sharp and witty speech. Trundling around from publisher to publisher with the idea for the book she was met with the "you're a bit young for this sort of thing missy, what you need to do is get a job and spend five years scribbling away in a garret before we can even consider you" sort of response. Several others added that "if the book was worth doing, it would have been done before".

Obviously begrudgery works as a great spur because the book is already a bestseller and certainly Antony Farrell from Lilliput Press, the publisher who finally took her on, was selling copies hand over fist at the launch. US Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, just back from Washington, was among those happy to queue to buy a copy.

Spotted in the crowd were Tim Pat Coogan, Garret FitzGerald, filmmaker Michael Lindsey Hogg, Anthony Cronin, Marie Heaney (whose sister, Polly Devlin, gave the official opening speech), PR woman Mary Finan looking smart in a summer suit and a very dramatic hat and most exciting of all, Lady Lavery's grandchildren Jacqueline Donnelly and Mary Boyd.