While we were heading off on our few days in Provence last week I started to go through the many boxes of books in the attic to get a couple of titles for holoday, relaxed perusal.
Among them I saw the above and tucked it into the bag, it looked like an Irish “Dick Francis ” and would so be fairly unchallenging.
To my surprise I find the flyleaf has a hand written dedication;
To Síle & Martin, le grá , Maurice O Scanaill. 25/ 11/93
First either of us had seen of this, but gratifying for all that.
A little light Googling cleared up the mystery.
Maurice Scannaill, the author, was a great friend, and best man to, my brother in law Padraic de Bhaldraithe. In the Seventies he had been working as a vet in Connemara and there Síle and I had met him a few times.
That he was an exceptional man of great charm is evident from his activities.
As well as running madly through the most difficult terrain in Ireland practicing vetinary medicine he used to find time to compile the weekly crossword for the RTE Guide- a man certainly after my own heart and I have fond memories of going through the entire songbook of the Fifties and Sixties one night in his company.
Here is his potted biography from his web page and it makes fascinating reading.
Dr Maurice O’Scanaill [aka Rory McCormac] lives with his wife, Alex, in Clifden, Connemara, Ireland. He has two grown sons, Rory and Cormac – hence his nom de plume – and an increasing number of grandchildren.
Maurice has had an extraordinarily varied career, moving from general veterinary practice in his native Ireland to dairy practice on the Mediterranean island of Malta and, from there, to equine and wildlife practice in The Sultanate of Oman, where he was Head Veterinarian at the Stud (Breeding) section of The Royal Stables, and Veterinary Advisor to various wildlife programs initiated by Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos ibn Said. These involved the rare White Oryx and the even rarer Arabian Leopard. Maurice’s only regret about his eventful life at the time was that he was far away, in the trackless deserts of Oman, while his books were being launched in London. “Though I loved every minute of my seven years in the Middle-East, I’ve always regretted not being closer to home for marketing … signings, launches, readings, libraries, book-clubs, interviews, that sort of thing….”
A very busy veterinarian, Maurice’s early professional ‘literary’ output was confined to compiling the weekly ‘Procrustes’ cryptic crossword for Ireland’s national Radio/TV Guide, and it wasn’t until much later that he found time to write full-length thrillers. In August 1994, he submitted his first, SNAPSHOT, and the first half of his second, OUTBREAK, to twelve London agents. Within two weeks, he’d received four offers to represent him and, by November, he’d secured a three-book deal with Random House. Hodder & Stoughton were the under-bidders. Returning home in 2002, he set about establishing a busy multi-vet practice in Connemara on Ireland’s rugged west coast and, now that that’s up and running, he has resumed his writing. He has just finished his latest thriller, WIDOW’S PIQUE (see synopsis). He still compiles deviously cryptic crosswords – again as Procrustes, for Ireland’s national satirical magazine, Phoenix, and, as Bogman, for his local newspaper, The Connemara View.
Among my boxed collection of books were several which we had inherited from Skerries , Sile’s family home, so obviously this book had lain there for the last 18 years while nobody remembered to send it to us.
Now I will have to read it of course and, if I enjoy it, I might even write and thank him !
Comments
padraic
on October 4, 2011Maurice/Muiris was also a great friend of Máire’s!
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