FORMER FIANNA Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke has been busy writing her memoirs in between stints of radio punditry and spoiling her grandchildren.

She has completed “the first rough draft” and tomorrow she will read a chapter from it at the Athlone Literary Festival, which kicked off a packed weekend programme last night.

The book – “unlike others I can mention, I didn’t use a ghost writer” – details her life story, from her early years growing up in a political family through to the turbulent end of the last government. While she talks about the many facets of her life, she says politics will take up “the most part” of the book.

So will it be a tell-all page-turner? “I don’t know about that, but I am being absolutely straightforward and upfront about my time as a politician. I’m not pulling my punches.”

The reading is in The Shamrock Lodge Hotel in Athlone at noon, where Mary will join members of the Castle Writers’ Group. There will be music from Eamon O’Dailaigh, Majella Flanagan and the Ravens Marching Band. Admission is €6.

However, in case people are expecting straight-talking O’Rourke to blow the lid off the Bertie and Brian years, she cautions that her maiden outing on the literary circuit “won’t be earth-shattering”. If nothing else, her publisher wouldn’t be too happy. She expects the book to be out early next year.