More readings this evening at Trinity

(Pictured is playwright Gina Moxley)

This is not a review but a journal record.

Just came back from the last series of Trinity College readings to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing. Among the readers were the popular Irish novelist Claire Kilroy, playwright Gina Moxley and Scotsman, Andrew O' Hagan. Literary agent, Jonathan Williams made the introductions.

I would love to do a post sometime, bearing the theme of live performances in reading aloud excerpts of the novel. Having been to several readings, it is easy to see after a spell, what works to capture the audience and what doesn't. Many of the younger novelists don't have a clue.

Hagan doubled up as a delightful comic actor, performing a brilliant mimicking act, featuring a few colourful and heavy-accented countryside characters in his novel. Picture old ladies with teacups and disgruntled couch potatoes. On the contrary, Moxley's prose contained a humour that was wry and sardonic. She was clearly naturally gifted.

I had no idea until the lady beside me mentioned really really softly, that Man Booker winner, Anne Enright was sitting directly behind the two of us. I saw her once more - as I already had last week - when we finally got up to leave. And I must say that I really liked the swirl of Enright's elegant black dress that looked like something picked out from Armani.

Each member of the audience was given 5 free anthologies of fiction and poetry as a gesture of appreciation that felt the ideal Christmas treat for book lovers.