Something very funny…

Well, it made me laugh anyway.

Website

My website has been fully refurbished and cleaned up over the last few days and I think it looks a lot better.

I’ll still be updating it regularly but all news about new books, stories or of course the upcoming film will appear here on the blog. As will the trailer and the poster very, very soon…

If you haven’t come here from the website, you can check it out here.

Vanity Fair

Vincent Keeling Exhibition

A friend of mine, a very talented painter Vincent Keeling, is having an exhibition of his work in the Dame Street Gallery, Dublin, from 26 July to 1 August. Vincent, who has exhibited his work in many prestigious galleries, displays some of the paintings on his website and also takes commissions for portraits. So if you’re in Dublin on those dates, do drop along, enjoy the paintings and maybe even buy something.

New Yorker lunacy

I’m very interested in the American Presidential election and was pretty shocked by the now infamous New Yorker magazine cover (left) depicting Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as terrorists / Muslims / flag-burning anti-christs etc. The logic of the magazine seems to be that they are satirising the attempts by the Right to depict Senator Obama as something he’s not but I can’t help but wonder why they thought that reinforcing those misperceptions was a way of combatting them. Both campaigns have been critical of the New Yorker, and rightly so, although you have to suspect that the McCain camp are secretly thrilled by it all. But even if you do accept that it’s satirical, it doesn’t seem particularly clever to me.

Oh, and if you’re reading this in America, why not click here?

The Lighthouse Cinema

When I was a student at Trinity College, Dublin, in the early ’90s I ofted skipped out for an afternoon to the Lighthouse cinema on Abbey Street, which at the time was the only cinema in Dublin which specialised in arthouse/independent/foreign films. Sadly the Lighthouse closed about a decade ago but it has recently reopened in new premises in Smithfield Plaza, Dublin, and I visited yesterday afternoon to see the new film by director Tom Kalin, SAVAGE GRACE.

I’m a total cinema buff and go the movies far more often than is healthy for me and I know most of the Dublin screens quite well and know where to see and where not to see movies. (There’s one cinema, for example, which has beautiful screens but the sound from the movies playing around it seeps into the auditorium which is really annoying.) But I have to say I don’t think I’ve ever been in a cinema anywhere in the world more extraordinary than the new Lighthouse. Resembling an art gallery or late night jazz venue more than a traditional cinema it’s an absolutely stunning venue with bright open spaces to mill around before the movie, and multi-coloured seats in the theatres themselves. The sound and screens themselves are excellent.

It’s great to have this 4 screen cinema back in Dublin but congrats to all involved for this most innovative design in Dublin cinema. If you’re in Dublin, you should visit it. Their website is here.

Do you want to be on television?

If you live in Dublin and want to appear on RTE Television with me, here’s your chance. RTE TV show Eye2Eye is returning for a fourth series soon, hosted by Sinead Kennedy (You’re A Star) and this time featuring stars from literature, comedy, TV, film, sport and music. RTE are looking for audience members aged between 12 and 16 to ask questions on Thursday 3rd July. Two authors will be in the studio alongside me - Darren Shan and Ruth Gilligan. So you don’t even have to like me very much as long as you like them.

If you want to take part, click on this link and there’s an e-mail at the bottom of the page. Good luck!

Age Guidelines

There’s been a lot of talk in the newspapers and on the books pages recently about age guidelines for children’s books, which some parts of the publishing industry are keen to promote. Many authors (and editors) are firmly against such a plan and have spoken out about it - Philip Pullman, for example, has made his views known.

My own position on this is that it’s a horrible idea. Unlike films, where age guidelines are there to prevent those too young to see specific material from entering screenings, the idea for the books is not to prevent (say) a 9 year-old buying a book aimed at a 12 year-old; it’s there to to suggest that the book should only be read by the suggested age range.

Besides the fact that most of us don’t want to be told at what age we should read particular books (I was reading Dickens when I was 12 and read, for example, Siobhan Dowd this month) the proposal will stifle children’s exploration of the wide range of literature available to them. I remember when I wrote THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS and, in my ignorance, was told about the concept of ‘aspirational reading’, i.e. that 8 year-olds want to read about 9 year-olds, 12 year-olds want to read about 13 year-olds, etc and I was immediately concerned that no one over the age of 9 would therefore want to read Bruno’s story. Happily, that didn’t happen but if we stuck a bloody great “9″ on the back of the book, I suspect that many children over that age would never have picked up the book.

Also, I fear the idea of a child who decides he or she wants to read a book not aimed at their own age-group and having it ripped out of their hands by an adult who deems it “unsuitable”. That’s not what books are for. It’s not what literature is about.

Perhaps we should leave it to the children themselves, and librarians, and parents, and teachers, and anyone who advise our young readers on what to read to decide whether something is appropriate or not. Or just leave the kids to get on with it. For once such a scheme starts, where does the madness end?

No age guidelines for me please.

Exam Stress

It’s almost 20 years since I did my leaving certificate in Ireland - our close-out exams at the end of school - and I haven’t given it a second thought since. Until this week when I learned that both THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS and one of my short stories which was originally published in The Sunday Tribune last year (PARADISE), featured on this year’s English examination papers. The idea of teenagers all over the country writing essays based on these is a somewhat surreal one. Still, it’s great to see that the English papers are allowing contemporary writers on to the syllabus (I wasn’t the only one - many more contemporary published novelists are poets are being studied in Irish schools. Or their work is anyway.) You can read PARADISE on the short stories page of my website. And you won’t have to answer any questions on it afterwards. Oh, and if you wonder what the accompanying photograph means - read the story.

Sportsfans

Hot on the heels of my posting earlier this week that Manuel Almeira of Arsenal football club had chosen THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS as his favourite book, another sports star has followed suit. This time it’s David Ferrer, who’s currently ranked as 5th best tennis player in the world. In an interview, he cites the novel as one which has left a lasting impression on him. Which is very nice. So naturally I’ll be cheering him on when Wimbledon starts in a few weeks time.