Martina Devlin at the launch of her new book ‘Charlotte‘ .

The autumn book season has begun with the crowds packing into Hodges and Figgis on Dawson Street in Dublin for the launch of writer and journalist Martina Devlin’s rich and insightful novel about Charlotte Bronte’s pivotal honey moon visit to Ireland following her brief marriage to Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father’s curate. 

Told through the eyes of Mary Nicholls, Arthur’s cousin, we get to see a very different side of Charlotte Bronte and the fleeting happiness that her marriage brings. Mary, unaware that she will in time will marry her widower cousin, both of their lives touched by the life of an extraordinary writer. It is a story of three people whose love and lives become intricately intertwined.   

Among the writer friends who came along to celebrate with Martina, were Catherine Dunne, Patricia O’ Reilly, Carlo Gebler, Sarah Webb, Lia Mills, and Cauvery Madhaven with Northern Ireland’s Eoin McNamee helping to launch Charlotte, which is published by Lilliput Press

Sarah Webb and Marita in Hodges Figgis Book Shop