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Full name
Frank Delaney
Born October 24, 1942
Died February 21, 2017
Biography

Frank Delaney was a novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He was 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, Ireland.

In 1970, Delaney began working as a newsreader for the Irish state radio and television network RTE. In the early 1970's he became a news reporter for the BBC in Dublin and covered an intense period of violence known as The Troubles. 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 in 1980, and he hosted his own talk show "Frank Delaney" in the early 1980s, featuring an array of cultural and literary personalities. Afterwards, 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.

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" 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," which starred Martin Clunes 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. He was a frequent public speaker and a contributor and guest on a variety of National Public Radio programs.

Delaney lived in Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, Diane Meier.

This biography is mostly copied from Delaney's entry at Wikipedia.

Boswellian impact

In 1993 Delaney had published A Walk to the Western Isles: After Boswell and Johnson, in which he follows in Boswell and Johnson's footsteps on a journey through Scotland and to the Hebrides, comparing his experiences with the writings of the original travelling companions throughout.

Bibliography

Delaney has written numerous books, fiction and non-fiction. Most are available via AbeBooks.

Books by author

The site contains further information about the following books authored or edited by Frank Delaney: