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(may 5th)'Cycling in the
rain and sorting his head out'
Irish novelist Dermot Bolger has written
what I reckon is the best review of 'The Accidental Pilgrim' yet.
He's writer in residence for the South Dublin Libraries and his
one of his diaries, he gives his view of the book. An excerpt:
the book works because of Moore's sheer absence
of cleverness. He possesses no religious belief and recognises that the
interest in Columbanus for his college days and this long trip across Europe
are primarily an excuse to postpone the future. He is doing this because
it alleviates the need to be doing something else. It is a way to put his
life on hold. The nice thing about the book is that nothing much happens.
He descends a few hairpin bends at dangerous speeds, lusts after but never
manages to bed the odd passing waitress, and spends a lot of time cycling
in the rain and sorting his head out. He has a dry wit and is very aware
both of the importance of the pilgrimage for himself and how it is slightly
ridiculous.
Read the full
review .
(april 27th) Talk about Writers' Websites
In my unlikely capacity as both a professional writer and a professional website developer, I?ve been asked to talk to the New Mexico branch of the writers? group PEN, on the subject of writers? websites. It?s next Tuesday, May 2nd, at 3pm in the Wheelwright Museum on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. There?ll be slides and examples (of my sites and others), as well as refreshments and the like. All are welcome.
(march 28th) Talk about The Accidental Pilgrim
Just a brief note to let you know that I will soon be giving a talk in Santa Fe - with photographs and readings - about the cycling trip from Northern Ireland to northern Italy that became The Accidental Pilgrim.
It?s on Saturday, April 2nd at 5pm, at The Travel Bug cafe and bookshop, 839 Paseo de Peralta (between Alameda and Palace).
You can find out more about the cycling, the places, and the mad saint, and hear select passages from the book.
So if you?re in northern New Mexico and would like to come along, you?d be more
than welcome.
(jan 4th) Glowing blog review
The anonymous blogger over at An Overgrown Path
has recently put up a very favourable review of The Accidental Pilgrim. An excerpt:
"In his book dot com escapee David Moore
manages to balance scholarship (he is a graduate of Cambridge and Trinity
College, Dublin, but wears his academic background lightly) with readability,
while managing to avoid the leaden ‘I am a dumb traveller, and
these are the dumb things that happened to me’ style of humour
regularly served up by Bill Bryson, namesake Tim Moore, and so many others
. . . . The book also manages to avoid the trap of simply being a diary
of places, journeys and punctures. In this his first book Moore manages
to include enough personal detail to make the author as well as the journey
come alive, and that is a difficult thing to achieve."
Here's the full
review (part of a very interesting blog).
(nov 15th) Accidental Pilgrim
crosses the Atlantic
A little after its author's arrival in the
New World, the book is now available from an online retailer
in the US. The excellent folk at Powell's are offering it,
and as it makes an excellent gift for the holidays, I'd recommend
you head over there and get a copy or two: so here's the
book's page on Powell's.
(june 24th) Accidental
Pilgrim available on Amazon.co.uk
The Accidental Pilgrim now has a home on Amazon.co.uk,
which is great news. They ship everywhere, so even if you're not in
the UK, it may well be the answer if you'd like a copy but are outside
Ireland. It would be great if anyone who's already read it could also
head over and submit a review. And if you get a copy by clicking through
on any of the links on this site, I get an extra kick-back, so here's the
book's page on Amazon.co.uk.
(may 16th) Interviewed on RTE Radio 1's 'The
Word on Travel'
I dropped into RTE over the weekend to talk to
Gerry Mullins on 'The Word on Travel' show. It was a good chat, and
you can listen
to the programme, archived on the show's site (I'm about 14 minutes
in). At the end of the interview, Gerry said, 'It's a terrific read -
very well written.'
(may 4th) Featured in Irish Times magazine
Over the weekend, you may have opened your Irish
Times magazine and got a shock. There I was, with my bike on top of
a boulder. It was accompanying a good interview, and you can read it
(along with all the other coverage) over on the reviews
page.
(april 5th) Review
in Food and Wine Magazine: 'Human, humorous and extremely well-written'
Ernie Whalley, editor of Food and Wine magazine
was kind enough to review the book in this month's issue of the magazine.
Saying that he couldn't put it down, he makes an exception to his rule
of only reviewing food-related books, concluding that The Accidental Pilgrim
is 'human, humorous and extremely well-written'. I'm blushing. The full
review is also on his ForknCork.com site.
(march 17th) Interviewed on Marian Finucane's show,
and books available
I talked to Marian Finucane today on RTE Radio
1, discussing St Columbanus. It was an appropriate topic of conversation
for St Patrick's Day, and it coincided with the books being on displays
across the country. If you're fast you might find some signed copies
in Dublin city centre bookshops - I dashed round them yesterday signing
books and meeting some of the booksellers.
(feb. 29th) Accidental Pilgrim site launched
As you can see if you're reading this, the website
of the book has been launched. With a range of articles, photographs
and other goodies, it aims to satisfy a number of different audiences:
those who haven't read the book yet can try a couple of sample
chapters and buy the book online,
while those who have read it can find out more about the
journey and the saint, and
look at some photographs from
the road. There's also a press area for journalists.
(feb 26th) David interviewed in Business and Finance
Somewhat bizarrely, the first real publicity
for the Accidental Pilgrim has come by way of an interview in Business
and Finance. In a feature called Post Software Slump Vocations, I talked
about how I'd jacked in my high-paying tech job in the Silicon Valley
to ride a bike to Italy. The piece talks to others who aren't doing
computers any more, and there are a couple of photgraphs of me up the
mountains.
(feb. 24th) Accidental Pilgrim to reach bookshops
in early March
The book should be in bookshops across Ireland
in early March. It's already been spotted making a sneak appearance
on the Eason's website, and on the
publisher's site. If you'd like
to preorder a copy at your local shop, the ISBN number is 0340832282,
and it's published by Lir/Hodder Headline Ireland. Meanwhile, you can
get yourself in the mood by reading a couple of sample
chapters.
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ISBN: 0340832282
Trade Paperback - Hodder Headline
Buy the Book
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