The Irish based entertainment website, Movies.ie, are running a competition this week where 100 people can win tickets to the World Premiere of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS in Dublin on Thursday September 4th. To enter the competition click here.

The full programme for the Dingle Film Festival has now been published. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS is the opening night film, on Thursday September 11. Tickets for the film, which will be shown at 8 pm in the Phoenix Cinema, can be purchased online from the festival website. Sadly I won’t be able to attend this screening as it clashes with the UK premiere in London the same night; I was in Dingle a couple of months ago for a reading in the Dingle bookstore before Listowel Writers Week and it’s a beautiful part of the world.

The trailer for THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS is now available free for download to your iPod from the Apple Store.

My American publisher, Thomas Dunne Books / St Martin’s Press, has redesigned the jacket of NEXT OF KIN for the U.S. paperback publication in February ‘09. The new jacket, which I think is very striking, can be seen here. You can already pre-order the paperback here or, if you’re desperate to read it, the hardback is still available to order here.

As reported in yesterday’s Guardian and The Bookseller, the 10 titles to be published for World Book Day 2009 have been announced. As ever the ‘Quick Reads’ series is aimed at encouraging those with reading difficulties or those who are coming back to reading (much like the Open Door series published by New Island in Ireland.)

My novella, THE DARE, is one of the titles in the ‘09 series, along with 6 other fiction and 3 non-fiction books. The story centres around a 12 year old boy, Danny, whose family falls apart in the aftermath of an accident in which his mother has knocked down a little boy in her car. The title refers to a key element of the story, but you’ll have to read it to find out what it means.

Strangely enough, while all 6 of my novels (and my 7th novel, which will be published next May) are set in the past, both THE DARE and my Open Door title, THE SECOND CHILD, are contemporary stories.

The full list of title, all due to be published for World Book Day, March 5th 2009 are:

Ian Rankin - A Cool Head (Orion)

Kate Mosse - The Cave (Orion)

Catrin Collier - Black-Eyed Devils (Accent Press)

John Boyne - The Dare (Transworld)

Jacqueline Rayner - Dr Who: The Sontaran Games (BBC Books)

Sherrie Hewson - The Tannery (Macmillan)

Gervase Phinn - All These Lonely People (Penguin)

Patience Thomson - 101 Ways To Get Your Child To Read (Barrington Stoke)

Lola Jaye - Reaching For The Stars (HarperCollins)

Evan Davis - Dragons’ Den (HarperCollins)

The full website for THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS film is now online and features full cast and crew biographies, the trailer, a gallery of pictures from the film, information about the novel and many other features. You can see it here.

For those of you who speak Spanish, one of Spain’s biggest newspapers, El Pais, ran a long interview with me today which can be read here. The interview took place at my home in Dublin a couple of weeks ago and I discuss the success of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS in that country, along with the forthcoming publication of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY in late September.

Yesterday I was a guest on Ryan Tubridy’s radio show on RTE Radio 1 in a segment discussing memories from life that one would put in a time capsule. You can listen to it here; you’ll need to go forward to about 45 minutes in to hear our conversation. Apologies to all the Lord of the Rings fans who I have no doubt offended…

It’s always good fun going on Ryan’s radio show; he was a great supporter of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas from its first week of publication and, indeed, that book was the first winner of the Tubridy Show Award at the 2007 Irish Book Awards. It’s also a show which devotes more time to books than probably any other radio show in Ireland, which is always a good thing.

In addition to screening out of competition at next month’s San Sebastian film festival in Spain, THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS will be the opening night film at this year’s Dingle Film Festival in County Kerry, Ireland, on Thursday September 11 (the night before it opens nationwide.) Tickets for the gala screening aren’t on sale yet but no doubt will be soon from the festival website.

Well, it made me laugh anyway.