Cork-based author shares ups and downs of her relationship in a new book Cork author Alannah Hopkin tells CHRIS DUNNE about her intensely personal book about the ups and downs of life with the love of her life Alannah Hopkin and Aidan Higgins with Best Man Derek Mahon in Buswell's Hotel, Dublin after their wedding on 20 November, 1997. Chris Dunne ‘A THUNDERBOLT’ is how writer and journalist Alannah Hopkin describes her first encounter with ‘a very strange man’, her husband Aidan Higgins; who was also brilliant, amusing, witty and challenging. “He took my hand and it felt like velvet,” says Alannah, author of nine books including Eating Scenery: West Cork the People and the Place.