NEW IRISH LITERATURE
SPRING MUST-READS
Here we look at some of the latest releases which are sure to make it onto your spring must-read list.
MAXOL: CELEBRATING 100 YEARS
BENJI BLUE
Benji is a beautiful little Robin Red Breast with one big problem. His little red breast sometimes turns a bright shade of blue! Benji must go on a journey to discover why his chest changes colour and how to stop it!
Local primary school teacher, Rachel McCoy recently selfpublished her first children’s story entitled; ‘Benji Blue.’ It tells the tale of a little Robin Red Breast whose chest turns blue when he is feeling sad. The aim of writing the book was to help children gain confidence in expressing and sharing emotions and to celebrate difference, encouraging children to be proud of who they are.
Maxol 1920–2020: Celebrating Can the BenjiFirst ever be Hundred a true Robin Red Breast? Years of an Irish Family Company written by bestRachel McCoy is a primary school from Northern Ireland who selling author Turtle Bunbury is the storyteacher of Maxol, the gained a First Class Honours in English Literature alongsideby her BEd. Teaching family-owned Irish company that is owned today is her vocation but she has always loved write creatively and has combined her the same family who founded itteaching backexperience in to1920. with her writing to bring her first children's story to life. Rachel is married with two daughters As Turtle Bunbury writes in the book: who love to listen to stories from their mummy. Rachel has used her personal experience in combination with her “Maxol’s evolution over the last hundred years is a teaching experience to explore emotions lived and felt by children in their formative years. story abounding in brilliance, ingenuity, serendipity and triumph. There have also been battles, both personal and corporate, in which true grit, hard work and honest ambition did much to overcome situations of tremendous adversity.” The book charts the formative decades of the company including its division into two separate companies in the 1930s; enduring the Second World War; the birth of the Maxol brand in the 1960s; their navigation of the 1970s global oil crisis; and the transformative integration of the two companies in the mid – 1990s. The story is brought bang up to date with the company’s evolution into a global leader in terms of food innovation and convenience and with a move into the green energy sector, with the launch of bright energy in July 2020, as it transitions from fossil fuels to renewables.
THE GARDEN
U S I N E S S | 19 2 0 – 2 0 2 0 T H E S T O R Y O F A N I R I S H FA M I LY B
Paul Perry is an award-winning poet and novelist. He has published several collections of poetry, most recently Blindsight. He also co-authored four international bestselling novels as Kareen Perry, including The Innocent Sleep. Paul Perry’s first solo novel tells of smothering power, loyalty and agency thwarted by the tragic patterns of memory and behaviour. The Garden is a modern fable, and a warning against trespassing upon nature in the name of profit.
an new d paraffin. ers, n, on the eve a popular
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The Garden by Paul Perry Publishing May 2021, New Island Books
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