Irish crime writers Alan Glynn and Declan Hughes will take part in a commemoration of Raymond Chandler's Waterford connections at the city's annual Imagine Arts Festival this October.
They will read from their work and discuss Chandler's influence on their writing and on contemporary crime fiction. The legendary crime novelist was born in Chicago, but his mother Florence came from the prosperous Thornton family of Waterford. She returned to Ireland with a young Raymond in 1895 after divorcing her husband.
In 1900 Chandler was sent to Dulwich College public school in England at the age of 12, and for many years he and his mother would spend summers in Waterford. In 1912 he borrowed money from a Waterford uncle and emigrated to the USA. In his later years Chandler planned a Philip Marlowe novel set in Waterford, but nothing came of it.
The free event at the Imagine Arts Festival will take place at the St Patrick's Gateway Centre in Waterford on October 23rd at 7pm. Also joining the literary line-up at this year's festival the following evening is author Mia Gallagher.
