Historia Live in Dublin is back on 2 October, 2024! With Sheila O’Flanagan, Jennifer Ryan and Nicola Cassidy talking about War in Fiction with Hazel Gaynor. Read on to find out more about the authors and how to get your free ticket.
Our programme of Historia Live Dublin events continues this autumn with War in Fiction, featuring bestselling authors Sheila O’Flanagan, Jennifer Ryan and Nicola Cassidy.
The World Wars, the Irish Civil War and the War of Independence are popular settings for historical novels. This free event, run in conjunction with Dublin Festival of History, will explore why periods of war appeal for writing fiction; the inspiration and imagination behind the author’s novels; and the need (or not) to balance disaster with hope.
It will be held at Pearse Street Library on Wednesday, 2 October, from 6.30 to 8pm, followed by an open question and answer session. You’ll have the chance to meet the authors during a book signing, with books available to purchase on the night. We’ll also provide refreshments.
Historia Live Dublin events are run in association with the Historical Writers’ Association (HWA) and Dublin UNESCO City of Literature.
Get your free ticket from Eventbrite.
About the authors
Sheila O’Flanagan
Sheila O’Flanagan is the international bestselling author of more than 30 contemporary novels and short stories. Born in Dublin, she worked at the family grocery store in the Iveagh Markets and later had a successful career in banking and finance.
Her first novel, Dreaming of a Stranger, was published in 1997 and was an immediate bestseller. Following the publication of two more novels she left finance to become a full-time writer.
The Woman on the Bridge, her first historical novel, is based around the life of her grandmother during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War. She gathered together a store of family photographs and the stories her grandmother had told her, using them as the basis of the novel which reflects the social history and family lives of that turbulent time.
Jennifer Ryan
Jennifer Ryan lives in Enniskerry with her husband and two children, their bouncy retriever and lethargic cat. Before becoming an author, she worked as an advertising copywriter and a publishing executive.
Her novels are based on the real life stories of women in war, how they found new opportunities and freedom amongst the bombs and the tragedies, how they found friendship and love to sustain them in their darkest hours, and how far they would go to protect the ones they loved.
She is the author of five historical novels, including national US bestseller The Chilbury Ladies’ Choir, The Kitchen Front and The Underground Library. All of her novels are inspired by her grandmother’s stories about the Second World War.
Nicola Cassidy
Nicola Cassidy is an author, ghostwriter and screenwriter from County Louth. She has published four historical fiction novels for adults and one for children.
She has a number of screen projects in development and has won or been placed in several high-profile writing competitions including the BBC/Element Pictures NI Writers Award and Stellify/Sony Pictures All Ireland Screenwriting Award.
Her latest adult fiction novel, The Emerald Spy, tells the true story of a small group of Jewish refugees who fled to Termonfeckin. County Louth, in 1939, seeking sanctuary. Her children’s novel, Sorcha, Queen of the Castle, recounts the Irish Revolution in County Louth and is distributed to every school in the county under the Decade of Centenaries funding programme, 2023.
Hazel Gaynor
Your event host, Hazel Gaynor, is an award-winning New York Times, USA Today and Irish Times bestselling author known for her moving historical novels, which explore the defining events of the 20th century.
Hazel’s work is translated into 20 languages and is published in 27 territories to date. She lives in County Kildare with her family.
Her Titanic inspired debut, The Girl Who Came Home, won the 2015 RNA Historical Novel award, and her work has since been shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown and for the Irish Book Awards in 2017, 2020 and 2023. Her latest novel, The Last Lifeboat, was included as a Times historical novel of the month pick in June 2023, was shortlisted for the 2023 Irish Book Awards, and received the 2024 Audie Award for Best Fiction Narrator.
Book your place now for our October author event! Get your free ticket from Eventbrite.
