Sebastian Barry, winner of the 2008 Costa Book Awards, talks about his book, The Secret Scripture.

This short film, commissioned by Costa Coffee, was shown at the Costa Book Awards ceremony in London on February 2009. The film made by Charles Turley at CTA Limited.

About the book:
Roseanne McNulty, perhaps nearing her 100th birthday - no one is quite sure - faces an uncertain future, as the Roscommon Regional Mental Hospital where she's spent the best part of her adult life prepares for closure. Over the weeks leading up to this upheaval, she talks often with her psychiatrist Dr Grene. Told through their respective journals, the story that emerges is at once shocking and deeply beautiful. Refracted through the haze of memory and retelling, Roseanne's story becomes an alternative, secret, history of Ireland.

About the author:
Sebastian Barry is a playwright and novelist who was born in Dublin in 1955. His novels include The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty (1998), Annie Dunne (2002) and A Long Long Way (2005), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Dublin International Impac Prize. He has won many awards including the Christopher Ewart-Biggs Prize, the London Critics Circle Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize. His plays include The Steward of Christendom (1995), Our Lady of Sligo (1998) and The Pride of Parnell Street (2007). Barry lives in Wicklow with his wife and three children. (less info)