Women in History – BOOKED OUT Martina Devlin and Nuala O’Connor in conversation with Emily Hourican

In Partnership with National Library of Ireland

Two historical fictions shining a light on two captivating women. Martina Devlin’s Charlotte (The Lilliput Press) is a story of Charlotte Brontë’s short but pivotal time in Ireland as never before told, bound by passion and obsession, friendship and loss, loyalty and deception. Nuala O’Connor’s Seaborne (New Island) is an intimate and thrilling portrayal of the life, legend and high-sea adventures of 18th-century Irishwoman, Anne Bonny. Join the authors in conversation with author Emily Hourican.  

Martina Devlin is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist. Devlin has won numerous awards for both her writing and journalism. She has been shortlisted three times for the Irish Book of the Year awards. She writes weekly current affairs columns for the Irish Independent and has been named National Newspapers of Ireland columnist of the year. She frequently chairs literary and current affairs events and is a regular commentator on BBC and RTÉ. She was born in Omagh and lives in Dublin. Her latest book is Charlotte: A Novel.

Nuala O’Connor is a novelist, short story writer and poet, and lives in Co. Galway with her family.  She is the author of five previous novels, including Nora (New Island & Harper Perennial, 2021), which was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards, the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award, RTÉ Audience Choice Award and named as a Top 10 2021 historical novel by The New York Times. Nora was also the One Dublin One Book choice for 2022. Nuala is editor-in-chief at flash e-zine Splonk.

Emily Hourican is the author of nine novels and one book of non-fiction. Her first novel, The Privileged, was published in 2016, became an instant bestseller, and was short-listed for the Best Popular Fiction Award at the Irish Book Awards that year. She then published three more works of contemporary fiction, the last of which, The Outsider, is being developed as a six-part TV series with Treasure Films, with Emily as screenwriter, supported by Screen Ireland. In 2019 she began writing historical fiction, and has since published four acclaimed, best-selling historical novels based on the Guinness and Kennedy families. The fifth, A Kennedy Affair, will be published in October 2024. Emily is also an award-winning editor and journalist with the Sunday Independent.