Cecelia Ahern Maeve Friel Lawrie Sanchez - verbalon

Recommendations

Info

22 Verbal Magazine Issue 15 Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks With the holiday season coming up I’d bet that Rough Guide and Lonely Planet are doing their usual, brisk holiday business. The travel guide has become a staple of the sightseer’s holiday experience – telling us where to stay, what to eat, what to see and when. As useful as I’ve found such guides when I’m holidaying, they do lack a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’. They don’t really give you a real flavour of your destination – nor are they guaranteed to keep you entertained on an eight hour long-haul flight to god knows where. No, my favourite travel ‘guide’ ever written, it could be argued, is less of a guide and more of a ‘how not to do it’. When a drunken Tony Hawks (not the skateboarder – a different Hawks altogether) made a bet with a friend that he could ‘hitchhike round the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, in one calendar month’ you could have guessed that this month in 1997 would be an eventful one. With the fridge costing him more than the £100 he stood to win, one has to wonder why the British comedian actually bothered, but anyone who has read his memoir of his adventure will be glad he did. Round Ireland with a Fridge can only be described as a rip-roaring romp, with a cast of characters and situations that are literally laugh out loud funny. Even better, it’s all absolutely, 100% true. Hawks’s love-affair with the Irish people (and theirs with him) begins when well known Irish radio personality, Gerry Ryan, champions his ‘cause’. Hawks finds himself notorious, if not famous, for his daily radio phone chats updating listeners on RTE with his progress. Such instant fame and his readiness to be charmed and charming ease Readerswrite the book that changed my life... Hitch-hikers Guide Sick to the back teeth of the usual holidays and run of the mill guidebooks? Charlotte Roberts offers an alternative. Why not hitch hike around Ireland with a large kitchen appliance? his path considerably. There is no doubt that without Ryan’s help Hawks might have simply been seen as a loony with a fridge and found his task much more difficult. However, one has to forgive his ‘cheating’ when you are faced with the joys of reading about the adventure that ensued. Hawks is taken to the collective Irish bosom and has no trouble finding lifts, beds, food and even pints. The characters he meets and his descriptions of their foibles make for very entertaining reading. During his month of hitching, Tony and the fridge meet the king of Tory Island, go surfing (seriously – with a fridge, it’s hilarious), enter a bachelor festival, and become intimate with the inside of more than a few pubs. The fridge, which usually receives more attention than Tony himself, is even blessed by a nun. The nun definitely has a hotline to upstairs as Hawks and his unusual traveling companion appear to have some unseasonably good weather – given the usual Irish climate. Which is lucky, considering that at one point Hawks is forced to sleep in a doghouse. If you’re looking for some deep insight into the history and culture of Ireland – this is not the book for you. Hawks sees the inside of more pubs than museums and seems quite happy with that. However, what this book does provide is a wry and affectionate look at the people of this Island, one that no ordinary travel guide can match. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll never look at household appliances in the same light again. Young people turn away from bookshops One of the statistics revealed at The Bookseller’s Reading The Future conference this month was that only half of young people aged 18-24 years old think people will still be using bookshops in 20 years’ time. Conference delegates heard from William Higham of agency Next Big Thing, which conducted the research. Higham reported that 56% of 18-24s think people will still be using bookshops in 20 years’ time. Looking deeper into 18-24 year olds’ reading habits, he found that 28% were favourable towards the idea of e-readers, compared to 9% of 65+ year olds, and 40% liked the idea of downloadable chapters of books, compared to 7% of 65+ year olds. These findings present difficulties for book publishers who are trying to come to terms with the increasing levels of flux in their industry. New technology offers a number of options should they follow the iTunes model of providing content and making money out of the hardware, like Amazon with the Kindle, or the Google model which is all about content? This tension between a technology/content focus or a content only focus seems unlikely to be resolved in the near future. The public are deciding with their feet/wallets Despite this unresolved technology/content tension UK Buyers are bidding for the Amazon Kindle on eBay, in the hope of shipping them to the UK, such is the device’s success in the US. Although the US versions will not be fully operational in Britain, the Kindle is rapidly taking on the must-have aura of Apple’s iPod. The Kindle, which is expected to go on sale in the UK later this year, has surprised US publishers and authors by how rapidly it has moved into the mainstream. Is this the future for book selling? Part 1 The international bookseller Borders has teamed up with former Disney man Michael Eisner’s independent media studio, Vuguru, to distribute a new web series on its website. “Robin Cook’s Foreign Body: The Prequel” will run as 50 two-minute episodes on the newly launched Borders.com. The series is a prequel to Robin Cook’s latest, Foreign Body, which is published in the US in August. The first two episodes of the prequel went live on the 17th June at www. BordersMedia.com/foreignbody. New episodes will be posted daily, culminating with the last instalment on 4th August. Part 2 James Patterson is extending his brand into graphic novels, with Daniel X: Alien Hunter which will be published by Century in October. Patterson, who already authors crime and romance titles, and the Maximum Ride series for children, is writing the graphic novel in collaboration with artist Leopoldo Gout from New York production company Curious Pictures. The book will follow on from the launch of Patterson’s Dan X brand in July, when the novel The Dangerous Days of Daniel X is published. The story is about a boy dedicated to hunting down aliens, in particular the one who murdered his parents, and it will be available in both an adult edition from Century and in an edition for younger readers from Doubleday Children’s Books. The graphic novel will come in one edition only. Patterson will go on to produce one Dan X novel a year, but only one single graphic novel is planned at present. James Patterson is truly more than an author of books he has his own company, James Patterson Entertainment, dedicated to growing the Patterson brand, the ethos being that James Patterson is entertainment that just happens to be books. The graphic novel is just one of many projects in development, which include TV series (such as ‘The Women’s Murder Club’) and films based on the popular Alex Cross and Maximum Ride series. Part 3 Author Paulo Coelho has teamed up with MySpace to create his first feature film, “The Experimental Witch”. Using MySpace’s “mashup” video concept, Coelho will transform his latest book, The Witch of Portobello, into a feature film using original videos and music created and submitted by MySpace users. Filmmakers are invited to submit short films inspired by the main characters in the book and post them on Coelho’s MySpace profile. Coelho will select up to 15 videos and 16 songs to be included in the final film. Submissions will begin on 16th June and close on 25th July and winners will be announced on Coelho’s birthday, 24th August 2008. Good luck to everyone who enters.
Illustration by David Campbell: david.campbell@verbalartscentre.co.uk / www.thereflexes.blogspot.com Book Giveaway! Titan Books have given us 10 copies of the Torchwood Yearbook, the full-colour official tie-in to the much-loved and toprated show, to give away this month. Be the first to own the Yearbook - which is published by Titan Books in August. The first ten entries to send their name and address to editor@ verbalartscentre.co.uk, marking their email ‘Torchwood’ will receive a free copy of the book. Good Luck! Sponsored by This month’s illustration is based on arguably the most influential Irish novel of all time. What is the name of the book? And who is the author, whose life is commemorated annually on June 16th in Dublin? To win a £50 book token courtesy of Waterstone’s fill in the answers on the coupon on the right, cut it out and send it to: Verbal Competition: c/o Alyson Wilson, Waterstone’s, 44- 46 Fountain Street, Belfast BT1 5EE The first correct coupon drawn out of the hat will receive a £50 book token courtesy of Waterstone’s. Entries must be in by Monday, July 14th . CONGRATULATIONS! Last month’s winner was Frances MacSorley, Belfast. Book Title: Answer: Name: Address: Tel No: Email: Verbal Magazine Issue 15 23
Page 1 and 2: Cecelia Ahern A ‘memorable’ new
Page 3 and 4: Editor: Catherine McGrotty Producti
Page 5 and 6: Boom-Boom! Gerry Johnston’s memoi
Page 7 and 8: Celtic Tiger Tales This Champagne M
Page 9 and 10: Day-Trippers Carnival of Colours In
Page 11 and 12: Emeralds in Tinseltown: The Irish i
Page 13 and 14: Paddy the Cope (1939), tells how he
Page 15 and 16: Toffee and Pie by Pippa Goodhart an
Page 17 and 18: Hiring Fairs and Market Places by M
Page 19 and 20: David Healy: The Story So Far by Iv
Page 21: Take 10 for 10th Anniversary To mar

Cecelia Ahern Maeve Friel Lawrie Sanchez - verbalon

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?