Apologies again for my long silence - apart from giving the Ballymaloe Cookery School my almost undivided attention after the busyiness of LitFest, over the past few months, in every spare moment, I have been working on my new book: 30 Years of The Ballymaloe Cookery School.
What a mission! It's a month past deadline already, and still not finished! It's been a mixture of pleasure and pain, and a wonderful trip down memory lane. So much water has passed under the bridge in those almost 30 years since Ballymaloe Cookery School first opened its doors on 15th September 1983. The big challenge is to remember it all!
For most of that time I was writing for the Irish Times and later for the Irish Examiner, so those articles have helped to jog my memory and are almost like a diary of the evolving food scene in Ireland and my travels, which as you can imagine, were always food related!
Rosalie Dunne, now retired, was my PA for almost 24 of those years, and has graciously agreed to come back and help me with my research for the book. She's got an ace memory, and we've had so much fun together reminiscing as we work to put the pieces together. Of course it could be 30 volumes - but my long-suffering publisher Kyle Cathie, wishes I could just deliver one! The plan was to have it in the shops in time for the 30 years celebration in September... I'll keep you posted!
What a mission! It's a month past deadline already, and still not finished! It's been a mixture of pleasure and pain, and a wonderful trip down memory lane. So much water has passed under the bridge in those almost 30 years since Ballymaloe Cookery School first opened its doors on 15th September 1983. The big challenge is to remember it all!
For most of that time I was writing for the Irish Times and later for the Irish Examiner, so those articles have helped to jog my memory and are almost like a diary of the evolving food scene in Ireland and my travels, which as you can imagine, were always food related!
Rosalie Dunne, now retired, was my PA for almost 24 of those years, and has graciously agreed to come back and help me with my research for the book. She's got an ace memory, and we've had so much fun together reminiscing as we work to put the pieces together. Of course it could be 30 volumes - but my long-suffering publisher Kyle Cathie, wishes I could just deliver one! The plan was to have it in the shops in time for the 30 years celebration in September... I'll keep you posted!
