Ivy Bannister (72) is a writer. Born in New York, she came to Dublin in 1970, where she lives with her husband Frank, with whom she has two adult sons. Bannister is part of the Women’s Education Bureau (WEB) – a women’s writing group formed in 1984 – and she has contributed to their first anthology. ?
I got the idea for this documentary when convicted terrorist Stephen Greer took part in The Secret Artists, my previous film about unknowns hoping to get work into the prestigious Royal Ulster Academy exhibition. As Stephen was one of five artists featured there simply wasn’t time to tell the full story of how learning to paint in prison changed his life. I decided to pitch it as a separate idea to the BBC.
Darina Allen is the co-founder of Cork’s Ballymaloe Cookery School and the author of 20 cookbooks. Her latest, The New Ballymaloe Bread Book, is published by Gill and out now.
‘There are none so blind as those who will not see’ goes the old adage in a kind of summing-up of this novella, the first in a series named after the elements. Fire, Earth and Air will follow at six-monthly intervals, with each book exploring the catastrophic repercussions of child sex abuse.
A Winter to Remember is told from the perspective of four different women. Emily, who owns a restaurant; Heather, an American who moved to Ireland as a teen; Lil, a young librarian and Christine, a recovering drug addict.