Frank Delaney


Francis James Joseph Raphael Delaney was an Irish novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He was the author of The New York Times best-seller Ireland, the non-fiction book Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea and many other works of fiction, non-fiction and collections.

Early life

Delaney was born in Thomastown, County Tipperary, Ireland, on 24 October 1942. His father, Edward, was the principal of the national school in Thomastown; his mother, Elizabeth Josephine O'Sullivan, was a teacher at the school.

Broadcasting career

Delaney began working as a newsreader for the Irish state radio and television network RTÉ in 1970. In the early 1970s, he became a news reporter for the BBC in Dublin, and covered an intense period of violence known as the Troubles. After five years of reporting on the violence, he moved to London to work in arts broadcasting. In 1978, he created the weekly Bookshelf programme for BBC Radio 4, which covered books, writers and the business of publishing. Over the next five-and-a-half years he interviewed more than 1,400 authors, including Anthony Burgess, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Isherwood and Stephen King.
On television, Delaney wrote and presented for Omnibus, the BBC's weekly arts series. He served as the Literature Director of the Edinburgh Festival in 1980, and hosted his own talk show Frank Delaney in the early 1980s, which featured many cultural and literary personalities. He later created and presented Word of Mouth, the BBC's radio programme about language, as well as a variety of radio and television documentaries including specials on James Joyce, Robert Graves, Ernest Hemingway in Paris, and the Shakespeare industry. He presented The Book Show on the Sky News satellite channel for many years.

Writing career

Delaney said in a 2014 interview that he had wanted to be a novelist since childhood. “I've always relished the power of the tale,” he said, “how it grabs us and then absorbs us, and casts a spell over us, and teaches us." His first book, James Joyce's Odyssey, was well received and became a best-seller in the UK and Ireland. He wrote and presented the six-part documentary series The Celts for the BBC, and wrote the accompanying book. He subsequently wrote five books of non-fiction, ten novels, one novella, and a number of short stories. He also edited many compilations of essays and poetry.
Delaney wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, which starred Martin Clunes and was shown on ITV in Britain, and in the Masterpiece Theatre series in the United States. His articles were published by newspapers in United States, the UK and Ireland, including on the Op-ed pages of The New York Times. He was a frequent public speaker, and was a contributor and guest on NPR programmes.
On Bloomsday 2010, Delaney launched Re:Joyce, a series of short weekly podcasts that went page-by-page through James Joyce's Ulysses, discussing its allusions, historical context and references.

Private life and death

Delaney lived in Ireland, England and the USA. His first marriage was to Eilish Kelliher, with whom he had three sons. He was subsequently married to Susan Collier, Salley Vickers, and Dana Mayer.
Frank Delaney died on 21 February 2017 at the age of 74 in Litchfield County, Connecticut, USA.

Fiction

  • The Last Storyteller
  • The Matchmaker of Kenmare
  • Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show
  • Shannon, A Novel
  • Tipperary, A Novel
  • Ireland, A Novel
  • At Ruby's
  • Jim Hawkins and the Curse of Treasure Island
  • Pearl
  • Desire and Pursuit
  • A Stranger in their Midst
  • Telling the Pictures
  • The Sins of the Mothers
  • My Dark Rosaleen
  • ''The Amethysts''

    Non-fiction

  • Undead
  • Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea
  • A Walk to the Western Isles: After Boswell and Johnson
  • Legends of the Celts
  • A Walk in the Dark Ages
  • The Celts
  • Betjeman Country
  • ''James Joyce's Odyssey''

    Collections

  • The Folio Society/Hutchinson Book of Essays
  • The Folio Book of Irish Short Stories
  • The Poems of Christy Brown
  • The Landleaguers by Anthony Trollope
  • Short Stories from the Strand
  • The Novels of James Kennaway
  • The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
  • Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Caitriona by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • ''Silver Apples, Golden Apples; Best Loved Irish Verse''

    Screenplays

  • Goodbye, Mr. Chips
  • Across the River and into the Trees
  • Telling the Pictures
  • ''My Dark Rosaleen''

    Podcasts

  • , weekly podcast on James Joyce's "Ulysses"