Donal Ryan & Joanna Cannon

When we were approached by the publicists at Penguin regarding hosting Donal Ryan at Burford Lit Fest we were, of course. thrilled to say yes please.

Donal Ryan, from Nenagh, County Tipperary, has published seven number one bestselling novels and a short story collection. He has won several awards for his fiction, including the European Union Prize for Literature, the Guardian First Book Award and six Irish Book Awards, and has been shortlisted for several more, including the Costa Book Award and the Dublin International Literary Award. He was nominated for the Booker Prize in 2013 for his debut novel, The Spinning Heart, and again in 2018, for his fourth novel, From A Low and Quiet Sea. The Spinning Heart was voted Irish Book of the Decade in 2016. In 2021 Donal became the first Irish writer to be awarded the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His most recent novel, Heart Be at Peace, won both Novel of the Year and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Nero Book Awards. His work has been adapted for stage and screen and translated into over twenty languages. Donal has lectured in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick since 2014 and lives in Castletroy with his wife Anne Marie and their two children.

Be you a fan of his work or just good literary fiction, this event is for you.

Yet there is more for Saturday evening.....

Award winnimg author Joana Cannon will be joining Donal in conversation.

Joanna Cannon’s first two novels, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things about Elsie, were both Sunday Times bestsellers and Richard and Judy picks. Her first non-fiction book, Breaking and Mending, a memoir about her experience as a junior doctor, was published in 2019 to critical acclaim. She is a regular panellist on radio, TV and at literary festivals across the country, including Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Hay, and her writing has appeared in the Sunday Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and the Observer, amongst others. She regularly reviews books for the Guardian and has written both literary and op-ed pieces in the national press. Joanna has been a guest on Radio 4 Open Book, Saturday Live and Woman's Hour, as well as BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 2, Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio London. In March 2022, Joanna was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to write and present Papageno and the Poetry of Disquiet.

Together, her books have sold almost a million copies and have been translated into 14 languages. Her third novel, A Tidy Ending, was published in April 2022.

Joanna left school at fifteen with one O-level and worked her way through many different jobs before returning to school in her thirties and qualifying as a doctor in her forties. Her work as a psychiatrist and her interest in people on the fringes of society continue to inspire her writing.

On a personal note, I am very excited to welcome theses two outstanding authors to Burford. The Spinning Heart is a book I loved from the very first page and Joanna's characterisation of middle England cul-de-sac culture is absolutely delightful and be her protagonists good or bad you will fall in love with them.

Tickets to this event will include wine with canapes by Nutmeg and Thyme. Tickets are limited so book early.

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