Nuala O’Connor and Michèle Forbes

Our writer-in-residence Nuala O’Connor will discuss her latest book Becoming Belle. A witty and inherently feminist novel about passion and marriage, it is based on the true story of Isabel Bilton who moves alone to Victorian London aged nineteen. Changing her name to Belle, she takes the city by storm while facing unthinkable hardships as she rises to fame and becomes the Countess of Clancarty. Author Michèle Forbes will present her second novel Edith & Oliver, published in French translation by Quai Voltaire last month. Voted Book of the Year by the Sunday Times in 2017, this is the story of a doomed romance set in the world of Edwardian vaudeville.

Image: Nuala O'Connor photo ©Una O'Connor; Michèle Forbes photo ©Anthony Woods