FORMER Tyrone GAA captain Sean Cavanagh has spoken about his "hero" Cormac McAnallen and how he tried to model his life on him after his death. 

1. When did you think about a career in writing and what were your first steps into it? When I was about eight years old I read a pile of Roald Dahl books.

ANYBODY who has been to one of the top literary festivals knows what the appeal is.

THE late Eamonn Coleman says he was sacked by Derry county board to “make sure the [players’] uprising was trampled” in a forthright new book about his managerial career with his native county.

Gardai were called after former Derry captain Henry Downey was punched by a county board official just weeks before the county claimed its first All-Ireland title, a new book has revealed.

SOMETIMES fiction can be stranger than truth – just sometimes.

CO DERRY childminder Yvonne Fleming has been happily walking around with her head in the clouds this summer and it's all thanks to Colin Cloud, a soon-to-be-famous member of her fictional Weatherbie family.

THERE are some things in life that former PR man and current Countdown presenter Nick Hewer can't stand – and reality TV is one of them.

BOOK OF THE WEEK Normal People by Sally Rooney is published in hardback by Faber & Faber, priced £14.

THE Aspects Festival in Bangor gets under way this weekend, bringing a month-long programme of literary events to various venues around the Co Down town.

BUT for a simple twist of fate, a Belfast-born novelist could have been among the victims of September 11.

:: A Ladder To The Sky by John Boyne, published in hardback by Doubleday, priced £16.

IT'S an unlikely tale, but as professional storyteller Liz Weir will tell you, the truest ones always are.

REVIEW: The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850-1960 by Dan Jones and Marina Amaral

DENISE Welch is under pressure.

THERE have been some great 'Troubles novels' written over the years: Silver's City, Cal, Field of Blood, Resurrection Man.

ANDREA Montgomery once said her singer-songwriter husband (Anthony Toner) would do anything to make her laugh and now some of his attempts have made it into her first book – of cartoons.

THE Good Friday Agreement remains worth celebrating 20 years on, because despite all of the difficulties in implementation, it has not been bettered as a roadmap for future co-operation.

FICTION Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller is published in hardback by Fig Tree, priced £9.