By Michelle Crawley
Leo was in town for the launch of the Rathconrath writer’s twenty-fifth book, and was full of praise for the book published by The History Press. “It’s perfect for a minute, for five minutes or five hours to dip in and out of, at the bedside, the fireside, at bath time or even in the glove compartment.” The book, which is packed with lots of wonderful nuggets of information from fun facts to interesting historical data, certainly made a big impression on the well-known editor, who anticipates it will “fly off the shelves” as it is “a wonderful stocking filler”.
Thanking Leo Powell, the local writer congratulated him on his recent Movember effort in which he raised more than €20,000 for the Irish Cancer Society. Local historian Ruth Illingworth acted as MC at the launch and also congratulated ‘fellow historian’ Anne on her books.
Anne has had a busy winter, launching not just one, but two new books. The well-known horse racing author and journalist launched ‘Ireland’s Mr Show Jumping: The Life and Times of Frank McGarry’ in November. Frank, a Sligo man, is well remembered in Mullingar for his cattle dealings as well as show jumping.
The local author has a huge interest in horse racing, having rode as an amateur rider at Aintree on Grand National Day, and written many books on the subject of horse racing including ‘Steeplechasing: A Celebration’, ‘The Grand National: The Irish At Aintree’, ‘All in the Blood’, and more recently ‘Arkle: The Legend of ‘Himself’, which was nominated in the Horse Racing Book of the Year category at the 2014 British Sports Book of the Year Awards.
