Eibhear Walshe, Director of Creative Writing here in UCC, is publishing his new novel, The Trumpet Shall Sound this month, with a launch on 7th February in the Handel House Museum in London, and then in Dublin at the Royal Irish Academy on 21st February.
A date for the Cork launch will be announced soon.
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It is 1742 and the celebrated composer Georg Handel is in Dublin for the first performance of his new work Messiah. Once the most successful composer of opera in London, and fêted by aristocracy and royalty alike, Handel is now nearly penniless, recovering from a debilitating illness and out of favour and his exile in Dublin a sign of his fall from grace. With him and due to sing in his Messiah is the celebrated young actress, Susannah Cibber, the subject of scandal and public disgrace, on the run from an abusive husband and considered with suspicion by the musical elite of Dublin.
‘A plausible, sensuous coming-of-age story about a genius wrestling with love and ambition across eighteenth century Europe.’ Emma Donoghue
‘Eibhear Walshe brings us into Handel’s world with such precision, clarity and beauty that it seems real and unforced, the work of a true artist. The story of a truly memorable event in the cultural history of Ireland, this fine novel is also a profound meditation on creativity itself, told with imaginative audacity and tempered by scholarly scruple. An immensely enjoyable read.’ Joseph O’Connor