The July theme for Six for Sunday, hosted by A Little But a Lot, is Summer Reads and today’s prompt is for: Books and the Seaside. When I was growing up, I used to love going to the seaside in County Donegal and County Antrim, both geographically in the north of Ireland, but in different countries! I remember how stunning the coastline was and still love going home to visit. With this in mind, I’ve decided to go back to the country of my birth and base my SixforSunday on Irish writers whose work I love. I’ve been wanting to do a post on Irish writers I admire for a while, and this seems like a perfect opportunity.
1. Sinead O’Hart has written two fantastic stories: The Eye of the North, steeped in mythology, and The Star-Spun Web with a sci-fi twist. I really hope she does a sequel for each of these!
2. Celine Kiernan is the writer of The Wild Magic Trilogy. I read the first two books, Begone the Raggedy Witches and The Little Grey Girl over the course of a weekend and am waiting ever so patiently for the final book.
3. Catherine Doyle has written two books in the Stormkeeper series: The Stormkeeper’s Island and The Lost Tide Warriors, which are both set on the magical island of Arranmore which is inspired by her real-life ancestral home of Arranmore Island in County Donegal, my home County! The third book is one of my most anticipated releases for 2020.
4. Padraig Kenny has written Tin and Pog. Tin is still on my TBR, but I loved Pog and the exploration of real grief contained within a fantasy setting.
5. Oscar Wilde. His Stories for Children, including The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince and The Nightingale and the Rose are timeless classics, and are still capable of making me cry, and smile, every time I read them.
6. C S Lewis who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, all of which I loved reading growing up, especially The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which I’ve re-read a few times.
Book Craic 
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a childhood fave that eill always have a place in my heart! Looking forward to Lost Tide Warriors too. I only know the Selfish Giant from Oscar Wilde’s, I need to read his others. Great take on the prompt!
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Thank you. I’ve loved helping my class discover The Chronicles of Narnia – I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to them before Christmas, and so many took the books out of the library and one boy even got his Mum to buy him the box set!
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Ah, it’s lovely when you see them infected by the book bug like that isn’t it?!
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Definitely! My love of middle grade books has really enthused my class and some have even said they now love reading because of me – my job is done!
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That’s lovely! Makes such a difference to have adults around them reading and enthusing about books! I love it when kids come into work all fired up by books they’re reading or have read in class!
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Some amazing books on this list and a fab twist on the theme 💜 Special love for Catherine Doyle and Sinead O Hart’s work on this post!!
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Thank you! Sinead O’Hart is a must-read for me! They are both at the Bath Literary Festival this year, and I am very tempted to go!
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Oh now I’m tempted… must consider seriously!!
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I know – I’m going to Reading Rocks South – Vashti Hardy will be there, but I’m very tempted to ‘persuade’ my husband to take me to Bath for the weekend!
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I love C.S. Lewis and Oscar Wilde. I just added two more of these authors to my list!
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That’s so great to hear! There are some amazing Irish authors!
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