Spend an enthralling 90 minutes or so, walking in the wonderful company of Mae Leonard and James Durney who will woo you with fascinating tales and readings of the Ryston-born author Molly Keane (in 1981, Good Behaviour was shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and astonish you with gems of local and social history from the Watering Gates to the Prince of Wales.
Mae was born in Limerick but has lived and worked in Kildare for over forty years. She is a writer and poet and is a regular contributor to Sunday Miscellany. The Gerard Manly Hopkins Poetry Award and the Cecil Day Lewis Award for Poetry and Prose are among her accolades and we, at Kildare Readers Festival, are proud and delighted to be involved in the launch of her first book, I Shouldn’t be Telling You This, here in Riverbank in April.
James Durney was born in Naas and has lived there all his life. The author of eight books on national and local history, James covers such diverse subjects as social housing and Irish-American gangsters. Two of his books have formed the basis of television documentaries: RTÉ’s War Stories Korea and TG4’s Mobs Mhericeá, both of which he worked on as a consultant.
James latest book, The Civil War in Kildare is due for publication in June, 2011.
