Novel by late Wesley Burrowes is launched Wicklow SPCA plans a festive celebration
CHIEF SCRIPTWRITER FOR GLENROE WROTE NOVEL ‘YEARS AGO’
TWO years since his death on New Year’s Eve, 2015, Wesley Burrowes has given the world another gift with the posthumous publication of his novel ‘Trusted Like the Fox’.
Burrowes was chief scriptwriter of beloved television programmes Glenroe, Bracken and The Riordans. He wrote the critically acclaimed film Rat, and a highly acclaimed back-catalogue of plays, screenplays and musicals.
The launch of ‘Trusted like The Fox’, his first and only novel, took place last Thursday evening in the Central Hotel in Dublin.
The actor Alan Stanford, who played George Manning in Glenroe, officially launched the book and spoke fondly to all those present of his own memories of Wesley.
Actors, friends, family members were among those who gathered to celebrate the launch of the novel, and the life of the man.
His wife Helena, daughter Ciara and son Kim were among those paying tribute to Wesley and his work.
Ciara said that her father had written the novel some years ago.
A native of County Down, Wesley Burrowes lived in Bray from the 1970s until his death at the age of 85. Prior to that he lived in Avoca.
Members of his family don’t recall exactly when he wrote the book, as, of course, he was writing all the time.
The novel was a new departure from screenwriting for him and has a darker tone than much of his previous work. Not least, the musicals he wrote with Michael Coffey in earlier decades.
‘Michael did the music and dad did the lyrics,’ said Ciara. ‘They won the National Song Contest in 1967 with “If I Could Choose”.
The song came second to Puppet on a String in that year’s Eurovision.
‘We’ll always feel very proud of dad, and we miss him,’ said Ciara. ‘He was a lovely man and he deserved the tribute.’ Trusted Like The Fox tells the story of Bill Burgess, a television journalist working in Dublin for many years. In 1972 he decides, in the midst of the political violence raging throughout the North, to take a trip back to his home town in County Antrim. The town remains much as he remembers it, at least outwardly, but there are some unsettling surprises in store from those who were his childhood companions. He is baffled by their attitude towards him, but then the grim truth begins to reveal itself.
As well as being a page-turner from a master of suspense, Trusted Like the Fox earns an honourable place in the genre of political fiction, providing a deep insight into the world of Loyalism and the attitudes that drove the extremism of the time. It was a world that Wesley Burrowes knew first hand, having grown up in the Unionist tradition in Northern Ireland during the 1930s and 1940s.
Trusted Like the Fox is available in Dubray books and other book shops and online at somervillepress.com. WICKLOW SPCA is getting in the festive spirit and hosting its special Christmas celebration this weekend.
Supporters and friends of the animal welfare group are invited along to the Sharpeshill Animal Sanctuary near Rathdrum this Sunday, November 26, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. for lots of family fun.
At 1.30 p.m., Karina from Canine First Aid will give a demonstration and lots of advice on how to tend to your dog’s knocks and bruises.
The day will also feature bric a brac, knitted delights from Black Sheep Crafts, a raffle, home baking and some other stalls, allowing the chance to pick up some gifts. There will also be a best dressed pet competition.
If anyone has any items they would like to donate towards the raffle, it would be much appreciated.