Odd but interesting news today:
Hachette Books Ireland acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in the title, Triggs: The Autobiography by Paul Howard, with plans to publish to coincide with the European Championships in June 2012.
via Hachette acquires memoir of Roy Keane’s dog | The Bookseller.
Interesting on two counts, one that Howard is writing material other than Ross O’Carroll Kelly and two that he is writing this book for Hachette rather than Penguin Ireland.
Penguin Ireland was the big winner in yesterday’s announcement of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards Shortlists. The company received a total of 10 nominations (and John Murray, its sister imprint another) twice that of any of its rivals.
The variety of Irish author’s nominated was impressive with Sebastian Barry, Neil Jordan, Derek Landy, Benjamin Black and Alan Glynn all nominated as well as Orla Tinsley, comedian Des Bishop, radio presenter Joe Duffy, award-winning jockey Tony McCoy, scriptwriter/director John Butler and Irish rugby player Donncha O’Callaghan.
Transworld Ireland, Gill & McMillan, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan all garnered five nominations with the Hachette group of companies pulling in five as well. Random House gained four, Simon & Schuster three.
Smaller publishers also did well with Liberties Press gaining one nomination in the Ireland Am Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year for Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke and Adam’s World of Wonders by Benji Bennett from Adam’s Printing Press joining the Junior section of the Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year.
O’Brien Press, who recently acquired Brandon, gained three nominations, Mercier Press two as did Faber & Faber and Poolbeg with Granta, Atlantic, Andersen Press and Cosair gaining one each.
Public voting for the awards has now started and can be completed online, here. The winners will be announced at an awards dinner in the Concert Hall of the Royal Dublin Society on 17 November.
The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year
Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)
On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry (Faber)
The Cold Eye of Heaven by Christine Dwyer Hickey (Atlantic)
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry (Random House)
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Random House)
Mistaken by Neil Jordan (John Murray)
RTÉ Radio 1’s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award:
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Corsair)
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (Granta)
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Ebury)
How the Light Gets in by Mary McEvoy (Hachette Ireland)
The Club by Christy O’Connor (Penguin Ireland)
My Dad was Nearly James Bond by Des Bishop (Penguin Ireland)
The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year:
A Death in Summer by Benjamin Black (Mantle)
The Bloody Meadow by William Ryan (Mantle)
Bloodland by Alan Glynn (Faber)
The Reckoning by Jane Casey (Ebury)
Taboo by Casey Hill (Simon & Schuster)
Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke (Liberties Press)
The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year:
How Ireland Really Went Bust by Matt Cooper (Penguin Ireland)
Easy Meals by Rachel Allen (Collins)
Circles Around the Sun by Molly McCloskey (Penguin Ireland)
Moscow, December 25, 1991 by Conor O’Clery (Transworld Ireland)
Just Joe: My Autobiography by Joe Duffy (Transworld Ireland)
Anglo Republic by Simon Carswell (Penguin Ireland)
Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year:
The Time of my Life by Cecilia Ahern (HarperCollins)
All For You by Sheila O’Flanagan (Headline)
Me and My Sisters by Sinead Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)
Love and Marriage by Patricia Scanlan (Transworld Ireland)
NAMA Mia! by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
The Pink Ladies Club by Emma Hannigan (Poolbeg Press)
Irish Sports Book of the Year:
My Autobiography by A P McCoy (Orion)
Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster)
Walk On: My Life in Red by Ronnie Whelan and Tommy Conlon (Simon & Schuster)
A Parish Far from Home by Philip O’Connor (Gill & Macmillan)
Joking Apart: My Autobiography by Donncha O’Callaghan (Transworld Ireland)
Inside the Peloton by Nicolas Roche (Transworld Ireland)
Sunday Independent Best Irish Newcomer of the Year:
The Tenderloin by John Butler (Picador)
Solace by Belinda McKeon (Picador)
The Better Half by Sarah Harte (Penguin Ireland)
The Lingerie Designer by Siobhan McKenna (Poolbeg Press)
Salty Baby by Orla Tinsley (Hachette Ireland)
My Dad was Nearly James Bond by Des Bishop (Penguin Ireland)
International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year:
Catherine’s Family Kitchen by Catherine Fulvio (Gill & Macmillan)
Make Bake Love by Lilly Higgins (Gill & Macmillan)
Revolution by Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc (Mercier)
The Other Ireland by Mary Jones (Gill & Macmillan)
Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom by Tim Robinson (Penguin Ireland)
Gorgeous to Go by Aisling McDermott (Gill & Macmillan)
Specsavers Irish Children’s Book of the Year:
Junior:
Adam’s World of Wonders by Benji Bennett (Adams Printing Press)
The Lonely Beast by Chris Judge (Andersen Press)
Sally Go Round the Stars by Sarah Webb and Steve McCarthy with Claire Ranson (O’Brien Press)
Stuck by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Childrens)
Marco Moves In by Gerry Boland (O’Brien Press)
Senior:
The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Ocean of Blood by Darren Shan (HarperCollins Childrens)
Skulduggery Pleasant: Death Bringer by Derek Landy (HarperCollins Childrens)
And For Your Information… by Denise Deegan (Hachette)
Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent by Alan Early (Mercier)
The Real Rebecca by Anna Carey (O’Brien)
Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award
Seamus Heaney
Despite the wall to wall publicity and the drama of a leadership challenge in the air, The Fitzpatrick Tapes failed to unseat Emma Donoghue’s Room from the top spot. Nonetheless it put in a strong performance for a January title and racked up 1,667 units against Donoghue’s massive tally of 2,096.
More interestingly, Emma Hannigan’s run of good fortune in book sales continued. She sold more units of her memoir Talk To The Head Scarf pushing it into the top ten, and despite dropping some sales for her paperback edition of Miss Conceived it stayed in the top ten. Both her publishers, Hachette for the memoir and Poolbeg for her fiction, will be pleased.
In fact it was a strong week for fiction and annuals with Neil Jordan’s Mistaken and David Nicholls One Day rolling in nice totals.
1: Room, Emma Donoghue, 2,096
2: The FitzPatrick Tapes: The Rise and Fall of One Man, One Bank, and One Country, Tom Lyons & Brian Carey, 1,667
3: Disney Playhouse Annual:2011, 1,314
4: Talk to the Head Scarf, Emma Hannigan, 1,094
5: The Killing Place, Tess Gerritsen, 1,046
6: Mistaken, Neil Jordan, 1,041
7: Official Manchester United FC Annual:2011, 923
8: One Day, David Nicholls, 871
9: Justin Bieber Unauthorized Annual:2011, 836
10: Miss Conceived, Emma Hannigan, 834
Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 15th Jan 2011
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Fresh from a sparkling appearance on the Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy, Emma Hannigan spoke on Dublin’s Talking with Lynsey Dolan on Sunshine 106.8FM.
Emma Hannigan On Sunshine 106.8FM
Emma’s two most recent books, Talk To The Head Scarf (Non-Fiction, Hachette Ireland) and Miss Conceived (Fiction, Poolbeg).
Publishers Description
Imagine you’re thirty-two, married, with two little children and you find out you’re carrying a deadly cancer gene?
That was me in August 2005. I discovered I had the gene Brca1, which means a 50% chance of developing ovarian and an 85% chance of developing breast cancer.
I had two options – wait for the big bad cancer wolf or have radical surgery. I chose the latter. Over the following year, I had a double mastectomy and both ovaries removed, which reduced my cancer risk to 5%.
I was just dressing in my victory dance outfit, when my worst fears were realised. Cancer had struck anyway. Between 2007 and 2010, I battled and slayed cancer six times.
This book takes you on my journey during that turbulent time in my life. If you’ve just been diagnosed with cancer, I know you are scared. I was too. But I want you to know you are not alone. More than that, I want you to know that I am still here.
The score so far is – Cancer 0 : Emma 6.
Even if my cancer returns, I will keep on crusading. I can show you how being positive and a big dollop of black humour can go a very long way towards getting better. So chin up, wig on and don’t forget, your skin can absorb an astonishing amount of make-up on those bad hair days!
Love
Emma Hannigan
When we discussed the top ten for the last full week before Christmas, we mentioned the scale of the sales. Well the final week (short of one day of course) was 25% bigger than that. The real winners were the top five. Jamie Oliver’s incredible streak of sales was capped by the incredible number of 11.271 and John Giles’s memoir scored a startling 8,718 while US2, from Ray D’Arcy sold 7,263. Gill & Macmillan’s Sounding was again a roaring success and in sold some 5,289 units.
Five of the top ten titles were published by Irish based publishers and five by foreign based publishers. The larger Penguin group had four titles in the top ten including two published by Penguin Ireland and two by other group companies.
Hachette Ireland’s decision to publish Giles’ memoir has paid off handsomely though whether it has paid for itself is hard to know given the rumoured large advance.
Emma Donoghue finishes a fine year with a strong fourth and early favourite for Christmas number one, Ryan Tubridy will be more than happy with his final week’s sales of 4,696.
1: Jamie’s 30-minute Meals, Jamie Oliver, 11,271
2: John Giles a Football Man, John Giles, 8,718
3: Us 2:Saturday 2nd October 2010:Today FM Photography Book, Ray D’Arcy, 7,263
4: Room, Emma Donoghue, 5,567
5: Soundings:Poems We Did for Our Leaving Certificate, 5,289
6: Guinness World Records 2011, 5,281
7: Wasters, Shane Ross & Nick Webb, 4,900
8: JFK in Ireland:Four Days That Changed a President, Ryan Tubridy, 4,696
9: Oh My God Delusion, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 4,501
10: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 4,265
Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 25th Dec 2010
Liveline listeners voted for their favourite books of 2010 from a shortlist of ten on Monday 20th December 2010. The shortlist was selected by Liveline production team and the show’s presenter Joe Duffy.
The show operated a text poll that eliminated shortlisted titles until only one remained standing.
Some of the results are a surprise with Ryan Tubridy’s successful title falling out of the running at the first hurdle and Poolbeg published, His Name Is Rebecca, making it to Number four.
10: Ryan Tubridy- JFK in Ireland: Four days that changed a president (HarperCollins)
9: Dave Fanning- The Thing Is (HarperCollins)
8: Christy O’Connor – The Club (Penguin Ireland)
7: John Giles – A Football Man (Hachette Books Ireland)
6: Ross O’Carroll Kelly – The Oh My God Delusion (Penguin Ireland)
5: John Lonergan – The Governor (Penguin Ireland)
4: Rebecca De Havalland- His name is Rebecca (Poolbeg Press)
3: Ken Foxe – Snouts In The Trough (Gill & Macmillan)
2: Paul Murray – Skippy Dies (Faber & Faber)
1: Emma Donoghue – Room (Picador)
Christmas in Irish book terms is turning into a story of Penguins and Poetry.
Yet again Penguin group publishers are have an excellent week, With the return to the Top Ten of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Penguin has some four titles in the top ten and five in the Top Twenty. Like Penguin, the Hachette group of companies also have five titles in the Top Twenty including two in the top ten. However, this week, their previous number one, John Giles A Football Man has been thrown from its top spot bu Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals, a Penguin group title.
The other success story of the year is Soundings which has had an incredible run and looks set to run into Christmas as a favourite stocking filler. A very nice outcome for Gill & Macmillan.
1: Jamie’s 30-minute Meals, Jamie Oliver, 2,454
2: John Giles a Football Man, John Giles, 1,978
3: Guinness World Records 2011, Craig Glenday, 1,978
4: The Oh My God Delusion, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 1,660
5: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney, 1,485
6: Soundings:Poems We Did for Our Leaving Certificate, 1,385
7: Room, Emma Donoghue, 1,384
8: The Help, Kathryn Stockett, 1,302
9: Coming Home, Patricia Scanlan, 1,191
10: One Day, David Nicholls, 1,143
Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 4th Dec 2010
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Penguin Ireland published The Club, by journalist Christy O’Connor has won the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year.
The book beat number one bestseller, John Giles:A Football Man (Hachette Ireland) as well as Declan Lynch’s Days of Heaven (Gill & Macmillan), which took second and third place respectively.
The Club follows O’Connor’s club, St. Joseph’s Doora-Barefield hurling club, for whom he was goalkeeper, through a season in 2009 as they looked to revive past glories spurred on through personal losses and tragedy.
O’Connor said; ‘I am absolutely thrilled and honoured to have won this award, particularly when you look at all the excellent sports books written this year. It is also a privilege when you consider some of the outstanding books to have won the William Hill award in the past and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the judges and public for their votes. When I decided to write this book, I wanted to pay tribute to my daughter Róisín and former team-mate Ger Hoey, both of whom passed away in the space of a week. I also wanted to portray the essence of what defines us in the St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield club, which required me to be as honest as I possibly could be. I would like to thank my family, the Hoey family and everyone in the Doora-Barefield club, especially my team-mates.’
Tony Kenny, William Hill Ireland PR Manager, said; ‘The Club is certainly the best sports book in Ireland this year and according to many of our judges, one of the best sports books they have ever read. The book will resonate, not only with GAA fans but sports fans in general and communities across the country. It depicts the triumphs and tragedy of one season for a hurling club but also looks at how important communities can be and gives a fantastic insight into the impact sport can have. Christy’s book is an excellently told story and is a very deserved winner of the William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year.’
This year’s judging panel was made up of eleven of Ireland’s best sports commentators and experts. The panel includes RTE rugby pundit and Newstalk presenter George Hook, RTE’s Eamon Dunphy, Today FM and TV3 presenter Matt Cooper and Setanta Sports’ Paul Dempsey.
It was a pretty good week all things snow, IMF and city centre marches considered. John Giles continues to dominate with his sales hitting well over 2,00 units. What remains surprising however is that it still only requires around 1,000 units or less to get into the lower ranks in the top ten. At this point in the year one might have expected a larger number to be the basic requirement for the top ten.
Penguin still holds 4 out of the 10 slots in the list which is a remarkable performance and one that has been sustained and ongoing with several other titles bubbling just below the top ten level.
1: John Giles a Football Man, John Giles, 2,314
2: Jamie’s 30-minute Meals, Jamie Oliver, 1,910
3: Guinness World Records 2011, 1,901
4: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth, Jeff Kinney, 1,754
5: The Oh My God Delusion, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, 1,341
6: Coming Home, Patricia Scanlan, 1,334
7: Soundings:Poems We Did for Our Leaving Certificate, 1,201
8: One Day, David Nicholls 1,144
9: Wasters, Shane Ross & Nick Webb, 990
10: JFK in Ireland:Four Days That Changed a President, Ryan Tubridy, 948
Data Supplied by Nielsen BookScan taken from the Irish Consumer Market week ending 27th November 2010
An emotional Emma Donoghue spoke of the importance of recognition by her homeland as she accepted the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel Of The Year Award at Thursday evening’s ‘Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in the Round Room Of the Mansion House.
It was a theme echoed by many of the winners, including Maeve Binchy who was awarded with a lifetime achievement award by the guest of Honour for the evening, President Mary McAleese.
Perhaps the least surprising winner of the evening was Late Last show host, Ryan Tubridy who won the Newcomer Of The Year Award.
Donal Óg Cusack won the John Murray Listeners’ Choice Award, Donal Skehan won the IES Irish Published Book Of The Year, Neil Richardson won the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book Of The Year, Ross O’Carroll-Kelly the Easons Popular Fiction Book Of The Year, Gene Kerrigan won the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book Of The Year, Niamh Sharkey took the Junior category of the DAA Irish Children’s Book Of The Year while Derek Landy took the senior category as well as accepting his Book of the Decade award.
Tom Owens, Trading Director Eason and Chairman of the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards, said, ‘The Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards allow us the opportunity to celebrate and honour Ireland’s best literary talent. This year’s winning authors illustrate the diversity and vibrancy of the Irish book world, and each book is an outstanding literary achievement in its own right. As a country, we should be incredibly proud of these authors and the wealth of home-grown talent we have on offer.’
The full list of winners
The Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year: Room by Emma Donoghue (Picador)
RTÉ Radio 1′s The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice Award: Come What May by Donal Og Cusack (Penguin Ireland)
The Ireland AM Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year: Dark Times in the City by Gene Kerrigan (Vintage)
The Argosy Irish Non-Fiction Book of the Year: A Coward If I Return A Hero If I Fall by Neil Richardson (O’Brien Press)
Eason Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year: The Oh My God Delusion by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
Energise Sport Irish Sports Book of the Year: A Football Man by John Giles (Hachette Books Ireland)
Irish Newcomer of the Year: JFK in Ireland: Four Days that Changed a President by Ryan Tubridy (Collins)
International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year: Good Mood Food by Donal Skehan (Mercier)
The Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children’s Book of the Year:
Junior - On the Road with Mavis and Marge by Niamh Sharkey (Walker Books)
Senior – Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil by Derek Landy (Harper Collins Children’s Books)
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