You LOL’d, you cried, you rubbed shoulders with the authors making you laugh

Hundreds of you braved one of the rainiest days of the year to attend ‘Meet the Authors Making Us Laugh’, brought to you by An Post, sponsor of the Irish Book Awards, in partnership with IMAGE. 

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Almost 100 of you turned out in the lashings of rain on Thursday night to rub shoulders with some of Ireland’s funniest writers, in the historical surroundings of the GPO on Dublin’s O’Connell Street.

You laughed and you cried along with Paul Howard, author of the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series, James Kavanagh and William Murray, authors of The Currabinny Cookbook, and Stefanie Preissner, author of Can I Say No?, who were in conversation with Sophie White, author of Filter This, as part of the InstaStory Club with An Post, sponsor of the Irish Book Awards.

Speaking about his new book Gordon’s Game, which he co-wrote with former rugby player Gordon D’Arcy, Paul Howard told the crowd: “Children’s books are a totally different territory to what I’m used to. But the fun thing is reading to a whole new audience – it’s great fun!”

Busy promoting the book around schools in south Dublin, Paul shared a story about how Gordon attended Blackrock College despite being from Wexford, and got so immersed in the south Dublin culture, that he even had ‘Southside’ on his rugby boots.

James Kavanagh and William Murray have another cookbook in the works, and may even expand the Currabinny adventure to a café or a restaurant… a seaweed restaurant if James has his way. “I am obsessed with seaweed,” said James, “so maybe something centred around seaweed… definitely, not actually, but then maybe! We definitely want to do another book.”

William, who hails from Currabinny in Co Cork, admitted that his recipes had to be narrowed down by James as his descriptions, inspired by his childhood town, were too “whimsical”.

The couple also spoke of the hardship of working and living together, and vowed early on never to go to bed angry with each other.

Why Can’t Everything Just Stay the Same? writer Stefanie Preissner, who also penned the RTE show Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, poked fun at her own writing.

“It’s outrageous that I wrote a memoir at 28, it’s completely narcissistic,” she told Sophie White. When a fan asked if she’d ever venture into fiction, she replied, “I don’t think I’m a good enough writer, to be honest. You really have to be such a good writer to be able to that.”

The An Post Irish Book Awards take place on November 20 in the Convention Centre in Dublin. See the entire shortlist here.

 #ReadersWanted

Follow the InstaStory Club with An Post, sponsor of the Irish Book Awards, over on @image.ie every week to hear what Ireland’s leading authors have to say and see them answer your burning questions. Follow along with #ReadersWanted.