Seasonal literary inspiration …
DRESS: If you like Bloomsbury-inspired fashion – buttoned-up blouses, pretty dresses, tailored suits and bold colours – Irish slow fashion brand Cobbler’s Lane new Harvest Moon collection (featured here in Whitestown House on the outskirts of Dublin, which hosts amazing supper clubs) is perfect for transitional pieces.
VISIT: The “Scribendi” exhibition by acclaimed photographer Steve Pike at Photo Museum Ireland with portraits of influential and emerging Irish writers, including Edna O’Brien, Anne Enright and Kevin Barry. The companion photobook would make a great gift for bookworms.
TUNE INTO: Arena on RTE Radio 1 on October 9 for a special event celebrating the publication of a landmark volume of poems by the late, great Seamus Heaney, photographed by Steve Pike. The Poems of Seamus Heaney combines all twelve of his poetry anthologies, in addition to other poems published in pamphlets and journals over the course of his life.
SEE: Author and podcaster Elizabeth Day in conversation with Róisín Ingle on October 29 at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, or a panel discussion on The Art of Writing for a Living with Naoise Dolan, Martin Doyle and Lisa McInerney in conversation with Gemma Tipton on November 4 at Wilton Park; both in Dublin 2.
Looking ahead to December 14, this year’s TS Eliot Lecture will be introduced by the Abbey Theatre’s Artistic Director Caitríona McLaughlin, delivered by Colm Tóibín and interspersed with readings by Cathy Belton, followed by a conversation with James Shapiro.
MUST DO: From literary talks to immersive walking tours, the programme for this year’s Dublin Book Festival in November is packed with exciting experiences. Guests include Michael Palin, Keith Donald, Naoise Dolan, Sean Ronayne, Sheila Flanagan, Joseph O’Connor and Colin Davidson. I’m looking forward to seeing one of my favourite authors, Christine Dwyer Hickey, whose novel Our London Lives is a deeply moving account of love and loneliness in an ever-changing city.
BOOK: “Romance in the City: A Literary Love Match” at The College Green Hotel Dublin until the end of November. This swish two-night stay includes a private tour of MoLi and its “Happy Ever After “exhibition. Guests also receive a special turndown gift – some reading inspiration from the MoLI bookshop. Browse Dublin’s oldest independent bookshop, Books Upstairs, around the corner.
STAY: Barcelona’s streets and skyline have shaped the imaginations of writers from George Orwell and Gabriel García Márquez to Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Mercè Rodoreda and Mario Vargas Llosa. To explore fully, the city’s Grand Hotel Central has a new tour that takes guests on a journey through significant places such as the Gothic alleyways where Orwell sought refuge during the Spanish Civil War and the plazas of The Time of the Doves, while also visiting independent bookstores and historic libraries. Francesc Cambó Library, a wood-panelled sanctuary within the hotel, is home to a collection that bridges Catalonia’s political and literary past.
SEE MORE: Touring The Med In Picasso’s Footsteps
EXPLORE: Dan Brown fans will get lost in a new walking adventure around Prague, a particularly pretty city in autumn, which follows in the footsteps of Professor Langdon. The Czech capital with its cobbled streets is the setting for The Secret of Secrets, Brown’s latest bestseller. Visitors can book a two-night themed stay at the iconic Almanac X Alcron Prague where its Mystery of Prague Experience is designed for lovers of history and storytelling.
READ: Gardenistas will love Literary Gardens by Sandra Lawrence, which explores both real and imagined gardens from The Great Gatsby to Rebecca, and The Secret Garden to The Chronicles of Narnia. It includes illustrations by Lucille Clerc and there’s an interesting chapter on Oscar Wilde who used the metaphor of gardening to poke fun at social niceties, especially in The Importance of Being Earnest. While he’s always been associated with sunflowers and lilies, he was a fan of old-fashioned gardens filled with yew trees and roses, especially the pink Marechal Niel climbing rose variety.
EMBRACE: JOMO – the joy of missing out – by curling up with a good book and luxuriating in the heady scent of La Bougie’s Cider & Tonic Bean candle. “An autumnal windfall apple is the hero note in this cosy winter scent,” says perfumer Lucy Hagerty.
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