I’m delighted to be taking part in this year’s Belfast Book Festival at the Crescent Arts Centre on Saturday 18th June 2016.
I will be reading from The Rising Son and talking about how I came to write my first novel for children based on the events in Dublin in 1916. It’s been a great year so far, meeting lots of young readers in schools and libraries, getting feedback on the book and talking about history and writing stories and how the two can come together.
If you haven’t read the book yet, you can read the first chapter here right now. The book is available from Easons nationwide and at all good bookstores and also as an e-book from Amazon.
Celia Keenan reviewing for Children’s Books Ireland wrote: ‘He had never wanted to come here… He only ever wanted to be the boy who enjoyed football and television and computer games… Until he came to Dublin that was who he was… now he was someone else. He was Irish … he had a history that was full of sadness. He shouted with all his might “I’m English for God’s sake”’. This powerfully expressed crisis of identity comes late in the story of Jack O’Connor.’ You can read the full review here.
If you’re in or around Belfast I hope you will come along on 18th June at 11.30am. You can book tickets for my event here and you can have a look at what is a hugely impressive festival programme here.
