NOVELIST James Simpson’s ‘clever and subtle satire’ on Derry life, True Colours, has arrived hot off the printers and will have a series of launches across the North West this autumn.
The first of these, in which Jim will be interviewed by the acclaimed author Sue Divin, will take place at Derry’s Central Library on Thursday September 12 (6pm for 6.30).
This will be followed by an evening event at the Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre in Limavady on Thursday October 3, (7pm for 7.30), where Jim will be in conversation with the award-winning writer Bernie McGill.
On Wednesday October 16, Jim will be interviewed by the broadcaster and playwright Felicity McCall at the U3A Foyle building in Gransha Park (7pm for 7.30).
And on Wednesday November 6, Jim will discuss his new novel with the Sion Mills memoir-writer and poet Maureen Boyle at Strabane Library (11am).
True Colours, published by Colmcille Press, is the follow up to Jim’s 2021 short story collection Smokes and Birds, illustrated by the artist Bridget Murray, who also designed the covers for both books.
A retired health board official, Jim has been living in Derry since the mid-1970s, with his wife Jen who ran Creggan Day Centre.
In 2019, he graduated from the Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, with an MA in Creative Writing. He is currently working on a second, coming-of-age, novel.
True Colours recounts the larger-than-life career of the flamboyant Indigo Black, headteacher of the prestigious St Gobnait’s College, who switches direction to be elected as an independent City Councillor. This is not without its challenges.
‘True Colours reads like a love note to Derry in a rainbow of ink,’ according to Edge Hill prizewinning author Bernie McGill. ‘It is written by a cast of illustrious characters whose pedigree might be traced back to Dickens with a detour via Flann O’Brien.’
True Colours is available from local bookshops and from colmcillepress.com, priced £13/€15.
ENDS
