"We are our stories.
We tell them to stay alive or
keep alive those who only live
now in the telling."
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Niall Williams
Credit Author's photos: John Kelly

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Welcome

Born in Dublin in 1958, studied English and French Literature at University College, Dublin. He moved to New York in 1980 where he married Christine Breen, whom he had met while she was also a student at UCD. His first job in New York was opening boxes of books in Fox & Sutherland’s Bookshop in Mount Kisco. In 1985, he and Chris left America to attempt to make lives as writers in Ireland. On April 1st they moved to the cottage in west Clare that Chris’s grandfather had left eighty years before. They have two adult children, a dog named Finn and a cat called Thanks. Niall’s first four books, published between 1987 and 1995, were co-written with Chris and tell of their life together in Co Clare.

Kiltumper Writing Workshop

We’ve worked with over 100 fiction writers from around the world since the workshops began.  And have hosted wonderful workshops here in Kiltumper. This coming year we are holding a workshop at The Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, Co Clare,  March 22-25th, 2024. Use the contact page for further info.

 Or, join us in Greece in September 2024 at the Kalymnos Writers’ Festival.

NEWS

Niall Williams
US Publication: November '24

TIME OF THE CHILD

A New Novel

Bloomsbury Publisher Editor-in-chief Paul Baggaley, senior commissioning editor Allegra Le Fanu and senior editor Grace McNamee acquired world English rights to Williams’ new novel from Caroline Michel at PFD.

A compassionate, life-affirming novel about the Christmas season that transforms the small Irish town of Faha. Time of the Child, is about Doctor Jack Troy,  born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. A visit from the doctor is a sign of bad things to come. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at real love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter’s lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

Set over the course of one December in the same village as Niall’s beloved This Is HappinessTime of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time. Publication date: Autumn 2024 

US Publication: November '24
UK/Ire Publication: October '24
Christine and Niall are delighted to announce that they will be participating in the Second Annual Kalymnos Writers’ Festival on the Greek island of Kalymnos this September 2024. Contact  info@kalymnoswritersfestival.com

Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter star in the film adaptation of Niall Williams’ novel, FOUR LETTERS OF LOVE, directed by Polly Steele with screenplay by Niall. Currently in post-production and likely to be released 2024.

The film is based on Niall Williams’ 1997 debut and international best-selling novel, Four Letters of Love, which was published in 30 countries. Polly Steele (Let Me GoElton John: Tantrums & Tiaras) is directing. Described as a “lyrical and deeply romantic Irish story,” the film features Pierce Brosnan and Imelda May, and Gabriel Byrne and Helena Bonham Carter who play parents of two lovers, portrayed by rising stars Fionn O’Shea and Ann Skelly. The cast also includes Ferdia Walsh Poole and Donal Finn and Pat Short. Read more here and here.

 

Original television and feature film screenplays are available from Niall’s film agent, Cathy King. Niall and Christine have written the screen treatment for Christine’s novel, HER NAME IS ROSE.

IN KILTUMPER, A Year in an Irish Garden by Niall and Christine was published by Bloomsbury in Sept ’21 with paperback in April ’23. The chronicle of a gardening year and a glimpse of a lifetime of writing and gardening, and Niall and Christine’s first co-authored book in 25 years. Here’s what Claire Connolly of The Times Literary Supplement wrote:  ‘It is a record, both honest and beautiful, of a sustainable but precarious way of life.’ See reviews below….

Kiltumper Writing Workshop

We’ve worked with over 100 fiction writers from around the world since the workshops began.  And have hosted wonderful workshops here in Kiltumper. This coming year we are holding a workshop at The Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, Co Clare,  March 22-25th, 2024. Use the contact page for further info.

 Or, join us in Greece in September 2024 at the Kalymnos Writers’ Festival.

Latest Books By Niall Williams

Articles

Niall Williams and Christine Breen at home in Kiltumper, Kilmihil, Co Clare. Picture by Eamon Ward

The Good Life: One couple’s success at writing their way back to nature

The Good Life: One couple’s success at writing their way back to nature. Article from Independent.ie
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In Kiltumper

A Garden Grows in Ireland

On a hillside in County Clare, a garden marks a near-lost function of the landscape. By Dominique Browning Sept. 17, 2021 11:00 am ET The ...
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