Bantry / Sunday 7 – Saturday 13 July - West Cork Music

Tuesday 9 July13.00 / Bantry Library / FREEMICHAEL HARDING will read from Staring at Lakes– a memoir of love, melancholy and magical thinking.Michael Harding has worked in theatre as an actor, director and writer. Most widely known as theauthor of such plays as Strawboys, Una Pooka, Misogynist, Sour Grapes and Amazing Grace, all producedby the Abbey Theatre, he has directed for the Abbey Theatre, the Project Arts Centre and Red Kettle.He has been Writer in Association with The National Theatre, Writer Fellow at Trinity College, and hisawards include The Stewart Parker Award, the Bank of Ireland RTÉ Award and Best Male Performer atDublin Theatre Fringe Festival. Michael Harding’s fiction works include The Trouble with Sarah Gullionand Priest, described by Pat McCabe as ‘two of the finest Irish novels of the 1980’s.’ His most recent stageplay, The Tinker’s Curse, nominated for Best New Play at Irish Theatre Awards 2007, toured Ireland in2011. A member of Aosdána, Michael is a columnist with The Irish Times.14.30 / Maritime Hotel / €18THE MISSING INK with PHILIP HENSHERPhilip Hensher will speak about his book on handwriting, The Missing Ink, an investigation into thewarmest of technologies. In a world where people are increasingly swapping pens, letters and love notesfor typing with their thumbs, Hensher’s book is a love letter to the lost art of handwriting – as a culturalartefact, an expression of our individuality, and a craft in itself. The Missing Ink considers our relationshipwith handwriting from the golden age of the 19th century, when the skill was embraced by the masses,to its slow decline as computers began to make their way into every home, office and pocket. It alsoexamines whether our style of writing reveals something about our true selves.Philip Hensher was born in 1965 in South London, where he still lives. His books include KitchenVenom, which won the Somerset Maugham Award, The Northern Clemency, which was short-listed for theMan Booker Prize, King of the Badgers, and, in 2012, Scenes from Early Life. He is a regular contributorto the Independent, the Mail on Sunday, and the Spectator. He is Professor of Creative Writing at theUniversity of Bath Spa.Michael HardingPhilip Hensher (photo: Eamonn McCabe)9