Chiswick Features In New Novel By Irish Writer

Author Mark Mulholland used to live in Arlington Gardens

A new novel A Mad and Wonderful Thing by former Arlington Gardens resident Mark Mulholland, will released in the UK on Thursday (May 8th).

The novel which has several scenes set in Chiswick has received a lively reaction following its release in Australia and New Zealand.

Mark is well known in Chiswick having lived and worked here for some years. Following a career in industry, aerospace, and local development, he cofounded the pub/music venue, The Spirit Store and Beer Keeper in Dundalk, Co Louth, where he grew up. Mark now lives in France with his wife Veronica and four children.

He describes A Mad and Wonderful Thing is a story about cause, about why we do the things we do, about motivations and conflicts, about choices and costs.

The central character is Johnny Donnelly - an intense young man who is in love with books, with his country, and with the beautiful Cora Flannery. But in his dark and secret other life he shoots British soldiers: he is an IRA sniper.

Australia’s Readings Monthly calls it: 'An extraordinary book; it confronts political and moral choices with a harsh brutality, but is, as well, a great love story.

And Booktopia, Australia’s biggest bookseller, says of the book: ‘A sparkling debut that celebrates the vitality, resilience, and humanity of Ireland.’

A Mad and Wonderful Thing was a long time in the making, Mark says: ‘And it needed to be to tell this tale in the round. It was years of work, and quiet living. But first novels, in any case, take time, and much of it was learning and finding my way. And, in the end, all it took to get a publishing deal was hard work, persistence, sacrifice, blood, and exile.’

The book was taken up by Henry Rosenbloom and published by Scribe, an awardwinning publishing house. With its release in the UK and Ireland this week, he is currently undergoing a publicity tour with interviews on TV and radio.

The novel is released here in the UK this Thursday, May 8th and is available from all good bookshops.

May 6, 2014