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Bringing the Past Alive: Writing Historical Novels for Children

This week, Sarah Webb chats to us about her experience writing her wonderful new children’s novel, The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street.

My new book, The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street, is about Eliza and Jonty Kane, who are aged thirteen and ten. When their father loses his sight and can no longer work, they have to move from their red-brick home in leafy Rathmines to a tenement flat in inner city Dublin. Here they find new friends and start working for a travelling circus in the evenings. Set in 1911, it’s the first historical novel I’ve published for children and in this blog I will talk about the research and writing of the book.

So how did I go about writing a book set in 1911? And where did the original idea come from?

A couple of years ago I visited 14 Henrietta Street, the Dublin tenement museum. I thought it would make a fascinating setting for a children’s book but I couldn’t find a way into the story. Then I attended a conference for festival programmers in Amsterdam (pre-Covid!) and met a Professor of Circus. She told me about the history of circus in Ireland and a bee charmer who visited Dublin with her circus, Patty Astley. I was intrigued. The night after meeting the Professor I spent the night in my hotel room reading articles about the history of the circus.

I discovered that travelling circuses often visited Dublin in the early twentieth century and bingo, I had my story. By adding a circus to the tenement setting I could balance the hardship of the tenement life with the drama and sparkle of the circus.

Illustration by Rachel Corcoran
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‘It’s always interesting to see the world through the eyes of another person’

This week, we chatted with author Brian Gallagher about his latest book Winds of Change.

Could you describe Winds of Change in five words?

Fast-moving, thought-provoking entertainment! (Not sure if that counts as five words or three!)

Who was your favourite character to write in Winds of Change?

Probably Clara.  Her life, as a member of the gentry, is the most far removed from my own life. It’s always interesting to see the world through the eyes of another person – one of the main reasons, I think, why we read fiction in the first place – and I enjoyed immersing myself in her world of privilege. The fact that that privilege was being challenged by the Land League made Clara’s position tricky, especially when her eyes were being opened by her secret friendships with Aidan and Molly. I like to see a character evolving over the course of a book, and I enjoyed making that journey with Clara. I also liked writing the scenes with the Tobin twins. Nobody likes a bully in real life but, as an author, writing the more villainous characters can be fun!

Did you have to do a lot of research?

Loads. Before writing a word of the book I spent weeks researching the period. Obviously, that meant reading up on what was happening in 1880s Ireland – and indeed the wider world – but it also meant studying things like fashions in clothes and discovering what was the popular music of the day. I loved immersing myself in old music-hall songs and Percy French tunes. And that’s one of the dangers with research. It’s really enjoyable, and you can easily find yourself doing too much of it – and actually using research to put off the evil day when you have to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and start writing the book. So it takes a bit of discipline not to overdo the research, and also to resist the temptation of ‘getting value’ for the hours spent on research, by inserting more historical detail into the novel than the story actually requires.

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Irish Book Awards Shortlisted Titles

The O’Brien Press are absolutely delighted to have two of our books shortlisted for three Irish Book Awards.

Blazing a Trail By Sarah Webb and illustrated by Lauren O’Neill has been shortlisted for two awards:

The Journal.ie Best Irish-Published Book Of the Year

The National Book Tokens Children’s Book of the Year – Senior

The Pooka Party by Shona Shirley Macdonald has been shortlisted for the following award:

The National Book Tokens Children’s Book of the Year – Junior

If you haven’t already heard about these amazing books then here is a little bit about them and a sneak peak!

Blazing a Trail  is a book for everyone who dreams of changing the world.

‘Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver.’
– COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ, rebel leader and politician

From daring aviator LADY HEATH to savvy gold prospector NELLIE CASHMAN, fearless sea captain GRANUAILE to world-class dancer DAME NINETTE DE VALOIS,
scene-stealing actor MAUREEN O’HARA to record-breaking runner SONIA O’SULLIVAN, activist MAUD GONNE to President MARY ROBINSON, meet the remarkable Irish women who shaped the world we live in.

Discover their achievements, the ways in which they devoted their whole lives to making a difference, and with each original stunning illustration, feel the essence of these important trailblazers.

‘We are all made of star stuff.’
– DAME JOCELYN BELL BURNELL, astrophysicist

Packed with fun, fascinating facts and stunning, full-page illustrations, this book celebrates the trail blazers who have shaped the world we live in.

Ready to walk in their footsteps? A world of bravery and discovery awaits you.

Made by two remarkable women, author Sarah Webb and illustrator Lauren O’Neill.

Sneak Peak Below!!

The Pooka is a magical shapeshifter who lives in the mountains all alone; fixing things, painting, dancing and singing. Suddenly, none of this seems fun any more, the Pooka realises that its lonely and hasn’t seen its friends in ages!

After having some time to think, the Pooka decides to throw a big party and invite all of its friends. Join the Pooka as it attempts to throw the Pooka party of the century in this fun and beautifully illustrated picture book.

A madcap tale of what to do if you feel sad and lonely, starring one shapeshifting hero with some musical monsters, flying cakes and a guest appearance by the Moon.

Sneak Peak Below!!

Don’t forget to Vote – click here!

Elena Browne, October 2018

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Finding the bold, brilliant and bad women in Irish History – an Interview with Marian Broderick

This week we had a chat with the brilliant Marian Broderick, author of Wild Irish Women and Bold, Brilliant and Bad.

Photograph by City Headshots Dublin

Could you tell us about your experience researching extraordinary women from Irish history for both Wild Irish Women and Bold, Brilliant and Bad?

Researching history is an absorbing experience – but getting lost in the research is a risk known to every writer. To research Bold, Brilliant and Bad I mined reputable internet resources, walked around graveyards, galleries and museums, lived in libraries and read everything I could. Quite often I would start the day by pursuing a woman’s history – for example the legend of the murderer Darkey Kelly – become lured down a fascinating side road to gruesome executions in the seventeenth century, and spend the whole day reading about that instead!

What surprised and/or impressed you about these women?

My women are all multi-layered individuals. Many of them took their courage in their hands and flouted the conventions of their society one way or another during the course of their lives. This is true of women throughout history, but doubly so for Irishwomen, and trebly so for Irishwomen from less well-off backgrounds, such as Rosie Hackett and Kay McNulty. I was also interested to note just how many of these formidable women had had the disadvantage of losing a parent through death or desertion at an early age. These include Lizzie Le Blond, Dr Emily Winifred Dickson, Dr Dorothy Stopford Price, Sheila Tinney, Nellie Cashman, Carmel Snow and Eileen Gray.

Who are your favourite women in Irish history and why?

I have a particular fondness for the feisty working- and lower-middle-class women, such as Margaret Skinnider, Rosie Hackett, Margaret Hassan, Nellie Cashman, Winifred Carney, Kay Mills and Anne O’Brien. These people overcame obstacles to achieve prominence in their chosen fields.

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The Making of The Making of Mollie!

Anna Carey tells us about the compelling research process for her latest novel The Making of Mollie!

When I started writing my book The Making of Mollie, the story of a would-be teenage suffragette in 1912 Dublin, I didn’t have to think long about where to set it. When it was founded back in 1883, my old school, Dominican College, was at the forefront of girls’ education in Ireland, and it was known for its progressive ethos – its old girls include the famous suffragette leader Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington. Since 1984, the school has been on Griffith Avenue in Drumcondra, but for just over 100 years it was in Eccles Street in Dublin (when I was there, from 1988 to 1993, lots of people still referred to the school simply as ‘Eccles Street’). As my fictional heroine, Mollie, was a middle-class girl living in Drumcondra, it made sense that she would have gone to Eccles Street – which was handy for me, because I live down the road from the school’s current location.

And so a rainy day in February, I went back to school, thanks to Sr Catherine Gibson, the nun (and former teacher at the school) who looks after the archive. In a cosy room in the convent next to the school building (I’d walked past it every day for five years but never entered it before), I ate biscuits, drank a particularly delicious pot of tea, and immersed myself in the past. Dominican College began producing a yearbook called The Lanthorn in 1913, and there was a complete collection in the archive. I was able to pore through the pages for several hours, taking copious notes and photographs and finally photographing entire pages.

The Lanthorn was an incredible source of information. It told me what subjects the girls studied at school, some of which were mystifying over a century later (historical geography?). It showed me that the girls called their lay teachers “professor” (the historian Dr Senia Paseta later told me this wasn’t unusual). In the school class lists, it gave me dozens of authentic girls’ names of the period which inspired the names of many characters in the book (there were several Mollies, a LOT of Noras – and yes, at least one Grace and Stella and a few Gerties). There were accounts of “a year in Eccles Street” which told me when the girls had exams and when they put on plays (which they seemed to do surprisingly often). Best of all were the short stories about school life by the girls themselves, which were often very funny and which provided me with a lot of authentic contemporary slang. They were the parts I enjoyed the most.

The Making of Mollie is my first historical novel, and I cared a lot about making it as authentic as possible while still being entertaining. So it’s a good thing that I turned out to love the research. In fact, in an ideal world I’d have spent even longer on it. And no part of the research was more fun than throwing myself into the world of the girls who’d gone to my school 75 years before I did – and seeing they weren’t always so different from me and my friends after all.

Anna Carey, December 2016

The Making of Mollie is available here and in all good bookshops!

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16 Lives – So Far So Good.

16Lives Co-Editor Lorcan Collins talks about reaching the halfway point in this groundbreaking series.

Throughout my life, I have tried to maintain an optimistic view of everything. I’ve always been a fan of the guy who falls out the window of the top floor of a skyscraper and, as he hurtles towards the ground, he keeps saying to himself “so far, so good.” The past few years have been a little like a free-fall and the ground is 2016, the Centenary of the Easter Rising.

As co-editor of the 16 Lives series with my esteemed colleague Ruan O’Donnell, it has been our responsibility to ensure that each volume in the collection is accurate and that there is consistency between all the books. It is incumbent upon us to carefully read each book a couple of times and make any suggestions where necessary. There are “in-house” editors but I guess we act as supplementary eyes looking to catch something. In addition, one of my tasks is to gather images for each book, make sure they are not repeated in the series and to ensure that they are properly captioned.  On average, so far, there have been four books published each year – so it seems that once one book is ready, just as you exhale, in comes another one! But it’s wonderful, exciting and really great to be immersed in something that I’m interested in.

It is imperative in the 16 Lives series that each book should be accessible to everyone. That’s not to say that each one should be the exact same style but the general hope is that each book will be, above all, entertaining and readable. There are far too many books being written on Irish history and in fact on World history which seem to want to make history boring, unreachable and incomprehensible. History is not just for crusty old farts sitting in dusty rooms smelling of rotting hardbacks. History is for everyone, it is alive, it’s about people like us, what they did, what they saw, how they lived and how they died. We all make history everyday, some in a small way and others in extraordinary ways. Often the most benign event can be the most interesting. How wonderful to discover that James Connolly enjoyed sledge riding with his family for a time in New York or that Joseph Plunkett often went roller skating in the Rotunda Rink. These kind of stories serve to humanise the revolutionaries of 1916 and help to prove that they were just regular people who were brave enough to step over the line to create change. They had wives and children, they had jobs, homes and security yet they were willing to risk it all and indeed, paid the ultimate price.

The importance of the intricacies and machinations behind the planning of the Rising is also of great importance in the series. When all the books are done there will be a complete picture of the role everyone played in the build up to Easter Week. Whether it’s the role that Seán Heuston played in developing Na Fianna, Seán MacDiarmada’s organizational skills in the IRB or Connolly’s working class hero’s the Irish Citizen Army – each and everyone had a significant role.

Myself and Ruan O’Donnell spoke at a 16 Lives evening in New York’s American Irish Historical Association in October last year. A question came from the floor as to why all the books were about men. As gently as possible I explained that the idea was to record the lives of the 16 people who were executed in 1916 and that they just happened to all be men. This was an insufficient answer apparently and seemed to annoy the questioner who insisted that a few women should have been included in the series. I explained that if we were writing a series of books on the Presidents of the USA that they would (unfortunately) be all men! However, I did explain that women would feature in all the books and that the women’s role in 1916 and afterwards was well documented. We have, after all, two commandant’s in 1916 who were women. Second in command in Stephen’s Green was Countess Markievicz and when Seán Connolly and Seán O’Reilly were killed in action in City Hall it was the respected figure of Dr. Kathleen Lynn who took over command of that garrison. Another feature that seems to stand out in the series is the strength of the women who stood beside the revolutionaries. Helen Litton who penned the wonderful biography of Edward Daly also wrote the book on Tom Clarke. She shows throughout the book the huge role that his wife Kathleen plays in the build up to the Rising and in the aftermath. Honor O’Brolchain traces the role Grace Gifford played in the life of Joseph Plunkett and a reading of the James Connolly book will enlighten the reader on the strong character of his wife Lillie and the support he received from his radical daughter Nora.

When we announced the series so many years ago, many people approached me and said there would not be enough information on some of the lesser know characters such as Con Colbert or Michael O’Hanrahan. Well, John Gibney’s excellent work on Seán Heuston and the inspiring work and research carried out by Brian Hughes on Michael Mallin have both proven that there is a wealth of biographical material to be plundered. The important thing is that it has to be done now. We are in the third generation…that is to say it was our grandparents who were around in 1916…if we did not undertake this series now the task would be even greater if it were left to the next generation. And yet if it had been done in the previous generation I don’t think it would have been ideal. I think people were too close to it all then and were often over romantic and disinclined to be critical where necessary.

With the release of Angus Mitchell’s authoritative account of Roger Casement in November 2013 we reached six books in total. Now in March 2014 with the release of Thomas Clarke by Helen Litton and Seán MacDiarmada by Brian Feeney the half-way point has been reached. There is a certain serendipity about these great friends, Clarke and MacDiaramada being released at the same time. I’d like to say it was planned but truthfully it just happened that way. That’s a total of eight books between March 2012 (when the first three volumes were released) and March 2014. With the continued hard work of the internal editors Mary Webb, Susan Holden, Ide ní Laoghaire and Helen Carr (who have become experts on 1916 themselves) alongside the research and writing that the final eight authors are undertaking and with the continued support of Michael and Ivan O’Brien who metaphorically risked leaping out the window of a skyscraper for this series it looks like a case of “so far, so good” as the “concrete pavement” of 2016 comes hurtling towards us!

LORCAN COLLINS co-author, with Conor Kostick, of The Easter Rising: A Guide to Dublin in 1916; founder of the 1916 Walking Tour of Dublin; lectures on Easter 1916 in the United States, and a regular contributor to radio, television and historical journals. 16 Lives is Lorcan’s concept and he is the author of the first book in the series, a biography of James Connolly.

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