Hazel on US book tour

As WW1 gasps through its last few tortured hours, a soldier struggles to survive being buried alive, while at home his mother fights for the life of a distressed newborn baby.

Hazel Gaynor's contribution to 'Fall of Poppies' is the final one in individual stories of love and the Great War by eight women writers, writes Brian Byrne.

'Hush' is apt in title and properly placed in the collection, and shows that our local best-selling novelist can craft equally well the short story as she does her full-length works. Deftly and delicately she weaves a simple tapestry of most of the everyday concerns of an English village and in a place in the trenches 'somewhere in France', on the day the Armistice was declared.

I've just bought the book overnight, and have read only Hazel's piece so far, so a review of the full anthology will follow in a couple of days.

In the meantime, Hazel has been in the US for the last few days, on a short book tour with her fellow authors in 'Fall of Poppies'. Events in Connecticut (pictured above) and Jersey City are giving them a chance to have a bit of fun with each other and with their readers.

'Fall of Poppies' will be published later this month here in Ireland and the UK, and Hazel's own next novel, 'The Girl from The Savoy', is publishing in mid-summer.