Simon Winchester OBE announced for Lismore Festival of Travel Writing – Immrama

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Simon Winchester OBE announced for Lismore Festival of Travel Writing – Immrama

Pens are at the ready in Lismore for the upcoming Festival of Travel Writing in June, with British author, Simon Winchester, the keynote speaker.

Wednesday, 15 May 2013
3:02 AM GMT



Best-selling British author Simon Winchester has been announced as a keynote speaker for the 11th annual Immrama Lismore Festival of Travel Writing, which takes place from June 13-16.

Simon Winchester is the author of the hugely popular ‘The Professor and the Madman’ and other best-selling works of popular history; Winchester published his first book, In Holy Terror in 1975. Since then, he's turned out nearly 20 original volumes of non-fiction, plus one novel. In Lismore he will speak about his work and travel experiences.

Before reaching this hardcover velocity, he was an intrepid newspaper reporter. Winchester made his name as the Guardian's man on the ground in Belfast in the fraught early '70s, then got dispatched to Washington, DC, where he filed articles about the Nixon White House as it came apart. Less than a decade later, doing field reporting in Patagonia, he was captured by the Argentine regime and imprisoned, with two other British journalists, for three months on spy charges. He used the experience for a 1983-book PrisonDiary: Argentina. Two years later, he was back out in the field, sending dispatches from China.

In the years since his first great success in 1998, with The Professor and the Madman, Winchester has had four titles on the New York Times best-seller list.

This year’s festival programme features some of the world’s most highly-regarded travel writers including another keynote speaker, Paul Theroux who will take to the stage at Immrama on Saturday, June 15 at 3pm. Perhaps best known for Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and The Great Railway Bazaar.

Also joining the two keynote speakers is bestselling writer and award-winning broadcaster Charlie Connelly whose books include ‘Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round The Shipping Forecast’; Charlie will host the literary breakfast at Immrama.

Also featuring at the festival are Irish writers Theresa McDonnell, Monica Corish and Kieran Heffernan. On Friday, June 14, Liz Davies and Hilary Linstead who co-wrote ‘Growing old outrageously’ will entertain festival goers.

On the morning of June 15, Donald Brady will discuss the ‘Watercolor Society of Ireland’, which was founded in Lismore in 1870. John Dwyer will host a workshop on E-publishing and Rachel Finnegan will host a reading at St Carthage’s Cathedral discussing her publications of the travel correspondence of two 18th century travellers Dr Richard Pococke and his cousin Jeremiah Milles.

And bringing the festival to a close on Sunday evening, June 16, are two writers originally from Lismore. John O’Keeffe who left Lismore in his teens to take his own journey around the world will discuss his book ‘Down the Deerpark Road, Outside Lismore’. John will be joined by Rosamund Burton also from Lismore who will discuss her book ‘Castle, Follies and Four-Leaf Clovers’.

Full details of the schedule and Saturday Special tickets for the Immrama Lismore Festival of Travel Writing 2013 are now available online at www.lismoreimmrama.com or by calling (058) 53803.



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