It's not every day a crowd is milling in the street, heaving to get inside to hear an author read from his latest novel but such was the scene outside the Hot Press Hall of Fame on Dublin's Middle Abbey Street on Monday night. Inside, Roddy Doyle read from A Star Called Henry, introducing the punters to the antics of his characters Miss O'Shea and Granny Nash, before submitting to interrogation by his pal Nick Hornby and taking questions from the floor. If anyone thought, given the novel's romp through 1916 et al, that they were in for a night of in-depth revisionism, forget it. One questioner begged Roddy to outline for the benefit of his wife whether it was possible to pack in the day job and live by writing alone? "What's the day job?" asked Roddy. "Therapist," came the reply. Pack it in at once, shot back Doyle. Next came the question of the pair on the stage's hair - or lack of it. No problem: all the decent writers they knew had no hair, including some women. Hilarity was the order of the night and as Sadbh was leaving, the book-signing queue stretched halfway round the hall.
This week Sadbh has been bombarded with news of Seamus Heaney's activities, most of which seem to be in the translating end of things. First up is a new translation of that meaty AngloSaxon poem, Beowulf to be published by Faber this autumn. It will be worth a look for the introduction alone, in which Heaney draws a line between his own Northern upbringing and the tongue-twisting language of Beowulf. College students who've wrestled with the text down the years most likely have a treat in store.
Meanwhile, down at the Merriman summer school, there was talk of the progress Heaney has made on a new translation of Merriman's saucy long poem, Chuirt an Mheain Oiche, a pet project of the Nobel laureate. Then there was the news that the Dublin Theatre Festival is going to host Heaney's first venture into musical theatre with The Diary of One who Vanished in October. Heaney was approached by director Deborah Warner and tenor Ian Bostridge to write a new English version of the poem series by a little known Moravian, Leos Janacek.
Adrian Mole meets Paddy Clarke in Belfast is how publisher New Island is billing the latest book from crime writer Eugene McEldowney. Called The Faloorie Man, it sees McEldowney leaving his RUC detective Superintendent Cecil Megarry in retirement in Howth and taking a new direction entirely.
Set in his native Belfast the new novel - out in October - deals with the dilemma facing a boy growing up in Ardoyne in the 1960s and discovering he is adopted. The at times painful search for identity which follows takes him across the Atlantic and back. Although it's fiction, the author intriguingly says there would be no story without his wife, Maura (to whom the book is dedicated). Given that adoption remains a live, raw subject in contemporary Ireland - witness the cases of Babies A and B this week alone - McEldowney is sure to reach a whole new constituency with The Faloorie Man.
Lucky the child who is born on October 12th 1999, not because they will officially become the six billionth person alive on the planet but because they'll have a book by the likes of Salman Rushdie and Ariel Dorfman devoted entirely to them. No Beatrix Potter number this. Letters to the Six Billionth World Citizen will bring together 14 international authors with a foreword by Kofi Annan who writes: "As in a fairy tale, writers of the world have come together in this book to make wishes over the six billionth baby's cradle".
The publisher is Dutch firm, Podium and rights have been sold in countries as far-flung as Korea and Israel but not so far in England or Ireland. With babies born every second all around the globe, just how it's going to be determined who's the billionth remains to be seen. Here's hoping he or she's a reader who'll appreciate having the literary world in on the act.
The first edition of a new annual publication in German devoted entirely to Ireland has just been published. The debut issue of Irland Almanach is devoted to the subject of war and peace in Ireland and has contributions from, among many others, Ciaran Carson, Paul Durcan, Hugo Hamilton, Michael Longley, Bernadette McAliskey, Liam Mac Coil, Medbh McGuckian, John Montague, Danny Morrison and Colm Toibin. The almanac is illustrated with topical photographs, has 50 reviews of current Irish publications, and contains a synopsis by Jurgen Schneider of events in Ireland from January of last year to April of this one.
If you're a cash-strapped poet in your middle years help may be at hand in the guise of a new award made possible through the generosity of the late Katherine Kavanagh, wife of poet Patrick. In her will, Katherine directed that royalties from her husband's work be used to help Irish poets in need of assistance. As she explained at the time, she felt poets could benefit best from an injection of extra cash after they'd established themselves - but before they were too old to benefit from a financial boost. The sum is £5,000 and applicants should have a body of work to their name, published either in a book or journals and magazines. It's confined to either Irish citizens: those born on the island of Ireland - or the child of a parent so born: you also need to be living here. Send applications for the Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship to its trustees at 3 Selskar Terrace, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 by October 1st.
Patrick Kavanagh, who confessed in his leaner moments to often literally starving in Dublin, borrowing "a shilling for the gas" when he really wanted money to buy a chop, would no doubt be pleased.