Frank Delaney is an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He's the author of 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. He was born in Tipperary

Tipperary

Tipperary is a town and a civil parish in South Tipperary in Ireland. Its population was 4,415 at the 2006 census. It is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam....

, Ireland.

Broadcasting career

In 1970, Delaney began working as a newsreader for the Irish state radio and television network RTE

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

. In the early 1970s he became a news reporter for the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in Dublin, and covered an intense period of violence known as The Troubles

The Troubles

The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...

.
After 5 years of reporting on the violence, he moved to London to work in Arts broadcasting. In 1978, he created the award-winning weekly show "Bookshelf" for BBC Radio Four, which covered books, writers and the business of publishing. Over the next five and a half years, he interviewed over 1400 authors including Anthony Burgess, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Isherwood and Stephen King. On television, Delaney wrote and presented for Omnibus, the BBC weekly arts series. He served as the Literature Director of the Edinburgh Festival

Edinburgh Festival

The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...

 in 1980, and he hosted his own talk show "Frank Delaney" in the early 1980s, featuring an array of cultural and literary personalities. Afterward, he created and presented "Word of Mouth", the BBC's award winning show about language, as well as a variety of radio and television documentaries including specials on James Joyce, Robert Graves, Hemingway in Paris, and the Shakespeare Industry. He presented "The Book Show" on the Sky News satellite channel for many years.

Writing career

In 1981, Frank Delaney's first book, "James Joyce's Odyssey", was published to critical acclaim and became a best-seller in the UK and Ireland. In 1986, he wrote and presented the six-part documentary series "The Celts" for the BBC and its best-selling companion book. Delaney has subsequently written five books of non-fiction (including "Simple Courage"), ten novels (including the bestselling "Ireland," "Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show" and "Tipperary"), one novella, and a number of short stories. He has also edited many compilations of essays and poetry.

Delaney wrote the screenplay for the newest adaptation of "Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Goodbye, Mr. Chips

Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a novel by James Hilton, published in the United States in June 1934 by Little, Brown and Company and in the United Kingdom in October of that same year by Hodder & Stoughton...

," which starred Martin Clunes

Martin Clunes

Alexander Martin Clunes is an English actor and comedian. Clunes is perhaps best known for his roles as Gary Strang in Men Behaving Badly, Doctor Martin Ellingham in Doc Martin and the title character in Reggie Perrin....

 and was shown on ITV in Britain, and Masterpiece Theater in the United States in 2004. He has been published in many of the leading newspapers in the United States, the UK and Ireland, including on the Op-ed pages of The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

. He's a frequent public speaker, and has been a contributor and guest on a variety of National Public Radio programs.

On Bloomsday 2010, Delaney launched "Re:Joyce," a series of short weekly podcasts that go page by page through James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

's "Ulysses" discussing its allusions, historical context and references. They're housed on www.frankdelaney.com. Delaney offers daily writing tips and hosts writing contests on Twitter @FDbytheword.

Delaney lives in Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, Diane Meier

Diane Meier

Diane Meier is the founder and president of Meier Advertising, a luxury marketing firm, founded in New York City in 1979.She is married to novelist and former BBC broadcaster Frank Delaney; they live in New York City and Litchfield, Connecticut.-Works:...

.

Fiction

• The Matchmaker of Kenmare (2011, Random House)
• Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show (2010, Random House)
• Shannon, A Novel (2009, Random House)
• Tipperary, A Novel (2007, Random House)
• Ireland, A Novel (2005, HarperCollins & Time Warner)
• At Ruby’s (2001, HarperCollins)
• Jim Hawkins and the Curse of Treasure Island (2001, Orion)
• Pearl (1999, HarperCollins)
• The Amethysts
• Desire and Pursuit (1998, HarperCollins)
• A Stranger in their Midst (1995, HarperCollins)
• Telling the Pictures (1994, HarperCollins)
• The Sins of the Mothers (1992, HarperCollins)
• My Dark Rosaleen (1989, CenturyHutchinson)

Non Fiction

• Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea (2006, Random House)
• A Walk to the Western Isles: After Boswell and Johnson (1993, HarperCollins)
• Legends of the Celts (1989, Hodder & Stoughton)
• A Walk in the Dark Ages (1988, HarperCollins)
• The Celts (1986, Hodder & Stoughton)
• Betjeman Country (1983, Hodder & Stoughton)
• James Joyce’s Odyssey (1981, Hodder & Stoughton)

Collections

• The Folio Society/Hutchinson Book of Essays (1990, Folio Society & CenturyHutchinson)
• The Folio Book of Irish Short Stories (1999, Folio Society)
• The Poems of Christy Brown
• The Landleaguers by Anthony Trollope (Folio Society)
• Short Stories from the Strand (Folio Society)
• The Novels of James Kennaway
• The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley (Folio Society)
• Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson (Folio Society)
• Caitriona by Robert Louis Stevenson (1988, Folio Society)
• Silver Apples, Golden Apples; Best Loved Irish Verse (1987, Blackstaff Press)

Screenplays

• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2003, from the James Hilton book, directed by Stuart Orme. Aired on ITV in London and Masterpiece Theater)
• Across the River and Into the Trees (2001, from the Hemingway novella, for Working Title Television, London, not produced)
• Telling the Pictures (1995, from Delaney's own novel, under option with Spikings Entertainment, Los Angeles)
• My Dark Rosaleen (1993, From Delaney's own novella, endowed by the European Script Fund)

Podcasts

• Re:Joyce, weekly podcast on James Joyce's "Ulysses" (2010–2011, www.frankdelaney.com)