Hachette Books Ireland recently acquired two novels from Irish author and journalist Emily Hourican that will make the real story of the Guinness Girls come to life. This is thanks to Hachette Books’ editorial director Ciara Doorley, along with Ivan Mulcahy at MMB Creative for World rights.
Set in the 1920s, these novels will follow society girls Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh— the three daughters of Ernest Guinness— and the glamour, scandal, and secrecy that surrounds their lives. The Glorious Guinness Girls, the first novel of the series, takes the sisters from the post-war streets of London to the social and political unrest of Ireland.
“I have long been fascinated by the lives of the three “Glorious” Guinness girls… Never before have I been so excited to delve into research but also to let my imagination run riot, wondering what it would have been like to live in that world.”
Speaking about her novel, Emily Hourican says “I have long been fascinated by the lives of the three “Glorious” Guinness girls. They spent their childhoods on the outskirts of Dublin where they had a ringside view of the Irish War of Independence before moving to London, where they were gossip column darlings partying with Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh, and all the Bright Young People, but their lives had tragedy and complications too. Never before have I been so excited to delve into research but also to let my imagination run riot, wondering what it would have been like to live in that world. The Glorious Guinness Girls, which features some fictional and many real characters, has been a dream project.”
The Glorious Guinness Girls will be published on 17th September 2020 in trade paperback, eBook, and audiobook.
“The three Guinness sisters were privileged and glamorous, society ‘IT girls’ but they were also enigmatic and complicated women,” Ciara Doorley says, “In The Glorious Guinness Girls, Emily has done a truly amazing job in bringing them to life, allowing us a glimpse into their world and how they lived and loved, and the result is a sumptuous, imaginative, sweeping novel – one we’ve very excited and proud to be publishing this autumn.”
Emily Hourican is a journalist, writing for the Sunday Independent for fifteen years, and the author of five books: a memoir titled How to (Really) Be A Mother and four novels, The Privileged, White Villa, The Outsider and The Blamed. She lives in Dublin with her family.
By Alex McKenna
