A lecture given at the first Desmond Fennell Summer Seminar on 14 June 2024 at Sandymount Hotel, Dublin 4, organised by Gerard O’Neill, Finbarr Bradley and James Bradshaw.

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Good morning everybody.

I’m delighted to contribute to this seminar on Desmond Fennell. Thank you Finbarr, James and Gerard for organising this event and for inviting me to speak.

Today I would like to explore the publishing dimension of Desmond Fennell’s work, including his ideas on book and magazine publishing, and I’d like to talk about my own publishing relationship with Desmond and discuss the current publishing scene.

I have been enjoying re-reading Fennell’s work over the past few weeks in preparation for this talk, and I want to thank Desmond’s son Oisín for providing me with books and essays that I didn’t previously have, and also for giving me access to some fascinating correspondences with publishers, which provide further light on Desmond’s publishing world.