Launching 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter' in Woodbine Books

Dawn Behan of Woodbine Books making a presentation to author Hazel Gaynor (left) at the launch of her latest book.

The day may have been a grey and misty one, but in downtown Kilcullen this afternoon the warmth and buzz in Woodbine Books shone like a lighthouse beacon, writes Brian Byrne.

Which was apt enough, as it was all about the launch of author Hazel Gaynor's 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter', which attracted a full house of friends, readers, and a wide mix of other Kilcullen people, as well as some who came from beyond, including Dublin and even Galway.

The event was fun, literary, fun, storytelling, fun, and fuelled with cupcakes and coffee and prosecco.

Fellow author and longtime friend Carmel Harrington did the honours, preceding it with a quiz for Hazel on 'who said what' about her (which accounts for some of the expressions in the photo album). On the more serious end of things, she described Hazel as a writer who made historical fiction 'accessible for everybody', and who 'shines a light' on incidents which people might have read about in the past ... or if they had been listening in their school history classes, 'making history come alive on the page'.

"It is beautifully written, with parts that will stay with you long after you have finished reading it," she said of the latest book, "and I challenge anyone not to be moved by some of the passages."

In her turn, Hazel read a short extract from the book, which had been inspired by the real life heroism of one Grace Darling ("you couldn't make such a lovely name up") who tended a lighthouse on the coast of Northumberland in the 19th century. She had first heard of Grace when she was ten, at school in her native Yorkshire.

"When she and her father rescued the people from a shipwreck 180 years ago, it started a chain of events that catapulted her into the public spotlight, a place where she really didn't want to be."

She thanked all who had come, and the team at her publishers HarperCollins for 'taking what has been for most of its life just words on a screen, and handing me this lovely book'.

She thanked particularly Woodbine Books for organising the launch. "When this bookshop came to Kilcullen, it was just magical. It's a family business that just blows me away with how passionate they are about books and doing all the little things to add to an author's book."

Concluding by thanking her family for their support in 'another year, another book', she noted that there are so many ups and downs in writing that only they see. "I couldn't do it without them."

More photos here.

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