From Malin Head to Mizen Head, by Joanna Donnelly
Illustrated by Louise Naughton
I’m really excited to let you know that a book I have illustrated has been nominated for the An Post Book of The Year Awards 2023. From Malin Head to Mizen Head by Joanna Donnelly, published by Gill Books is shortlisted for Bookstation Lifestyle Book of The Year.
Book cover: Graham Thew Design
A journey around Ireland’s headlands
If you live in Ireland you might recognise the author Joanna Donnelly. She is a meteorologist and weather forecaster at Met Éireann and RTÉ. In this book Joanna goes on a journey around Ireland’s Sea Area Forecast. She visits the places that are a familiar part of the daily broadcast, explaining the history, language and science associated with it transporting the reader on a trip around Ireland’s most remote headlands which I was commissioned to illustrate throughout the book.
Illustrating Ireland’s headlands
I was commissioned to illustrate sixteen maps of Ireland’s wildest and most remote headlands for the book. A bit of a dream job for a sea obsessive like me. Each illustration was crafted using Procreate on Apple iPad. The project involved a huge amount of research into the flora, fauna, landmarks and attractions of each headland and a lot of studying of Google maps!
The An Post Irish Book Awards
To have the book recognised and shortlisted by the An Post Irish Book Awards is a huge recognition of the labour of love that went into the project. The awards are an annual celebration of Irish writing, with the best of the year’s books nominated across a range of categories. The shortlists are compiled by an industry panel of leading booksellers, librarians, literary critics, reviewers, editors and bloggers. The aim is to select the books which represent the best of Irish publishing in a given year including titles which have raised the profile of books, both in terms of publicity coverage and performance.
Thanks for your support and for reading all about this project.