PeterOConnell Media

Colin Davidson: Twelve Paintings - A rich study of one of Ireland’s great contemporary artists Study of Colin Davidson’s art from the beginning to the present has many surprises

My review of ‘Colin Davidson: Twelve Paintings – Conversations with Mark Carruthers’ from the weekend. A deep and beautiful book, and the paintings of Belfast are masterly.

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine is Waterstones Irish Book of the Year Books newsletter: a wrap of the latest news and preview of tomorrow’s pages

The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine is Waterstones Irish Book of the Year

Yup it is.

Author of the memoir Poor, Katriona O’Sullivan launches Leon Diop’s memoir Mixed Up - two books that shine a light on our recent history @littleislandbooks.bsky.social

Matthew Parkinson Bennett publisher @littleislandbooks.bsky.social with author Leon Diop at the launch of his memoir Mixed Up @easons.bsky.social

Deep Dive: What's it REALLY like to write a book? Podcast Episode · Get Around To It · 10/11/2025 · 23m

It's Monday morning - which means a new episode of Get Around To It arts and culture podcast! It's Deep Dive week, and this week we're asking... What's it REALLY like to write a book? I talk through the writing of Social Capital and what I learned podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/d...

Delighted to speak about my children’s book ‘The Experimenters - Luke and Ruby’s Scientific Sleepover’ on Ireland AM. Plenty of cosy science activities for a mid-term break!

www.littleisland.ie/products/the...

What Remains launches in just 2 days!📚

Join author Brais Lamela and translator Jacob Rogers on Thursday in Books Upstairs to mark the publication of our latest title in translation, with introductions from Catherine Barbour.

Register your attendance here: www.eventbrite.com/e/what-remai...

Cover of An Alternative Irish Christmas: An Anthology. Green background, with the title in gold, there is a gold tree and the star on top is the Tramp Press logo

Contents page of An Alternative Irish Christmas, listing stories by: Jessica Traynor, Sophie White, Mike McCormack, Roisin Kiberd, Niall Bourke, Maggie Armstrong, Arja Kajermo, Sue Rainsford, Soula Emmanuel, Briana Fitzsimons, Belinda McKeon, Tim MacGabhann, and Anne Enright.

We are delighted to share the cover for a very special project we've been working on for Christmas 2025! An Alternative Irish Christmas is an anthology of stories, in traditional, unusual, extract, and essay form by some of our favourite authors. 1/🧵

Well said. All the best to Louisa and everyone at the mighty @booksupstairs.bsky.social

A small fire at the front of the bookshop was started last night after rubbish bags that were awaiting collection were set on fire. The guards don’t have reason at this time to believe it was a targeted attack. Thankfully the damage was limited and everyone is safe. We are open for business as usual

In pictures: Portraits of Irish writers as you have never seen them before Former New Yorker photographer Steve Pyke has compiled a striking book of portraits beginning with Neil Jordan in 1985 and including Marian Keyes, Edna O’Brien, Sebastian Barry

In pictures: Portraits of Irish writers as you have never seen them before. Former New Yorker photographer Steve Pyke has compiled a striking book of portraits beginning with Neil Jordan in 1985 and including Marian Keyes, Edna O’Brien, Sebastian Barry (and me!)

www.irishtimes.com/culture/book...

Book cover showing two children and two adults playing in a garden. Children are digging & writing in a notebook. There are birds and flowers and a man looking over the wall at them

The Experimenters book on bookshelf facing out with other books near it

My new children’s book is available in bookshops from today!

Join Luke and Ruby in ‘The Experimenters’ on cosy adventures where you think, test, & experiment like a real scientist.

It’s been so much fun working with with illustrator Sayani Mukherjee & publisher @littleislandbooks.bsky.social

Chapter book Dino Mode Activated and nonfiction titles The Experimenters and Making it Up as You Go Along.

Huge thanks to @thelifeofdivia.bsky.social @littleislandbooks.bsky.social for this fab selection of titles! Authors and illustrators credited in next post 🙂

STORY PACK📚Limited time offer ⏰

Order 3 of these 6 great books for 20 euro including postage within Ireland, 30 euro to GB and Europe.

Offer is only available until Monday.

🔗 stingingfly.org/product/stor...

Steve Pyke - Scribendi: Portraits of Irish Writer 1985-2025 - The Lilliput Press Featuring over 100 captivating portraits of many of Ireland’s greatest contemporary writers, alongside conversations with each on their writing life, Scribendi is a landmark book of portraits of Irish...

-tremendous book, and to officially open the Scribendi exhibition, on October 9!

The exhibition runs from October 9 - November 2 at Photo Museum Ireland. It's free entry, and all are welcome!

Pre-order here: www.lilliputpress.ie/products/scr...

Image shows the cover to Wendy Erskine’s novel, The Benefactors.

@wednesdayerskin.bsky.social doesn’t waste words, characters or narrative. Everything in The Benefactors has purpose. I haven’t loved a book so much in a while. You will rage, be resigned, rage some more and know why and how you got there. Go read it!

Wonderful. Thank you!

Why supporting indie Irish bookshops matters in the age of Amazon The message was stark but indisputable. "Irish businesses will struggle to compete with Amazon.ie, both online and in the high street," said Kenny's bookshop on Instagram.

We don’t just keep saying this because it affects us and we love working in a bookshop, living, breathing, talking, lugging books -

www.rte.ie/culture/2025...

I even popped in to @booksupstairs.bsky.social to let them know in person...

Congratulations to everyone, I can't wait to see their projects come to fruition 😎

(This needs to be labelled #AD even though there is nothing in my contract that says I have to do this, I'm just chuffed for the shops!)

The @financialtimes.com’s fave audio books and one is The Benefactors. Thanks for this lovely description. Yes, I do the narration and a cast of friends, family and readers do the monologues. Very proud of it.

The Inheritance by Cauvery Madhavan - read an extract It's 1986 and 29-year-old Marlo O'Sullivan of London-Irish stock has just found out that his sister is his mother. To steady his life, he moves to Glengarriff, to a cottage he has inherited, in the st...

We love this novel by our West Cork neighbour @cauverymadhavan.bsky.social. Cauvery will be chatting about The Inheritance in #BantryBookshop on Sat 12 July at 11.30am as part of WCLF. #FreeEvent @hoperoadpublish.bsky.social
www.rte.ie/culture/2024...

We actively made the choice not to use the other place to get the word out about season 2. So if you do enjoy the pod, please engage with it and share if you can. We really do appreciate it. ❤️

3. The Stories We Tell: Kathryn Scanlan & Wednesday Erskine

🕔Friday 06 June 2025
Join us for an illuminating conversation on how different stories are shaped and formed

🎟️https://belfastbookfestival.com/whats-on/-the-stories-we-tell-kathryn-scanlan-and-wendy-erskine-#ticketsolve-iframe

1. Short Stories From The North: Martin Doyle @martindoyle.bsky.social, Declan Meade & Tara McEvoy

🕔Thursday 05 June

🎟️https://belfastbookfestival.com/whats-on/short-stories-from-the-north-martin-doyle-declan-meade--tara-mcevoy#ticketsolve-iframe

Reminder: we're gonna be panelling it up and giving readings in Listowel this Sunday. Come one, come all.

... few survivors when everything grinds to a halt.

Loved it - couldn't recommend it more highly.

I have a high bar for post-apocalyptic fiction, and Gethan Dick's Water in the Desert Fire in the Night is really impressive. A time-fractured story of one woman's survival with a group after "the world" has ended.

Very little high stakes drama, more about how you cope with being one of...

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