451 Editions

20/02/2025

Many thanks to Irish author Eilis Ní Dhuibhne, who wrote a really lovely piece about "A Time Outworn" by Val Mulkerns today in The Irish Times:

Reissued 1951 novel provides an extraordinarily vivid picture of Irish society in the 1940s

11/02/2025

This short video gives a taste of "A Time Outworn" and its author, Val Mulkerns, edited by Cadhla Kennedy Ko.

This special anniversary edition of "A Time Outworn" celebrates the centenary of the birth of Irish author Val Mulkerns, who was born on 14th February,…

09/02/2025

In another review published in The Sunday Independent, Ruby Eastwood says astutely of A Time Outworn's heroine, Maeve Cusack, "Her charm radiates off every page. She is up there with Dodie Smith's Cassandra and Mercè Rodoreda's Natalia, heroines at the cusp of girlhood who are somehow both dreamily removed and sharply observant."

09/02/2025

The centenary edition of "A Time Outworn" by Val Mulkerns got some great coverage today in the press. Dermot Bolger, in his very honest and detailed review in The Sunday Business Post notes, "Three quarters of a century later, this is still a rare and vivid account of how Ireland looked to a thoughtful, sceptical, independent-minded, free-spirited woman coming of age in the restrictive society she is ensnared within".

07/02/2025

Road trip yesterday! We drove to Galway to deliver copies of "A Time Outworn" by Val Mulkerns to the legendary Kenny's Bookshop and Art Gallery in Galway, and had a great time chatting with the wonderful Tom Kenny, who was full of memories of Val Mulkerns. She would have been a regular visitor to the original Kenny's in Galway city centre. Many tall tales and literary stories were exchanged. Great to know that Kenny's continues to warmly support authors and independents, long may they thrive. Gallery Manager Dean Kelly did the honours with the pix.

05/02/2025

Valentine’s Day 2025 marks the centenary of the birth of Irish writer Val Mulkerns. To celebrate, 451 Editions brings out a special anniversary edition of her widely-acclaimed first novel, "A Time Outworn". Featuring a foreword by Carlo Gébler and an introduction drawn from Mulkerns’s late 1940s diaries by her daughter Maev Kennedy, it’s a coming of age story set in Ireland just after the second world war. Its official publication date is 14 February next, but the paperback is available from this week on in select Irish bookshops, priced at €15.00. It's also available by special order (reference our distributor, Gardners), from any Irish bookshop. Online, you'll find it for sale on most good bookstore websites internationally both in paperback and eBook formats.

“The prose is the sort that only a woman of genius can write, with every word like a dart at a target.” – Frank O’Connor, Harpers Bazaar (1951)

“There are few if any Irish novels written and published in the period with the breadth of interests in all senses that are on display in A Time Outworn.” – Carlo Gébler

For more info, see: https://www.451Editions.com
and: https://www.ValMulkerns.com