Letterbox Archives - Helen Walsh

Private Libraries, Curated Book Boxes + Ascendent Indies

By Helen WalshPosted on July 26, 2023September 11, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged Book Boxes, helen walsh, libraries, London

A few years ago, I started work on a story idea about a woman who curates private libraries for clients. I’d recently read an article in the FT and it piqued my curiosity. A library is your story on a shelf. – Nicky Dunne, creator of bespoke private libraries. Heywood Hill is not your average bookshop. Opened in 1936, it was run during the later years of WWII by Lady Anne Gathome-Hardy and novelist Nancy Mitford, of the infamous Mitford […]

NYC, Tribeca Film Festival + War Correspondents

By Helen WalshPosted on June 19, 2023September 11, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged helen walsh, Journalist, NYC, Tribeca

I’ve just returned from the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. It was literally the Big Smoke: at times the air was orange and unbreathable due to forest fires burning in Québec. As one taxi driver said to me, it brought back eerie memories of the last time the air had been that bad: September 11th. And I agreed. The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by Robert DeNiro, his long-term producing partner Jane Rosenthal and her then husband Craig Hatkoff in […]

Special Edition: London Book Fair, Part 3/3 + Newport, Rhode Island

By Helen WalshPosted on May 16, 2023May 16, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged books, helen walsh, indie publishing, newport, publishing, rhode island, the ocean race, writing, writing life

I’m writing this from the Newport, Rhode Island where I am having a 4-day long weekend. It’s The Ocean Race weekend, the only North American stop on an around the world sailing race (32,000 nautical mile or 60,000 km), that is amongst the world’s toughest and craziest team sports. The crew race day and night for more than twenty days at a time on some legs, slammed by the wind and waves and extreme conditions that can fluctuate from -5 to +40 degrees […]

Special Edition: London Book Fair, Part 2/3

By Helen WalshPosted on May 10, 2023May 16, 2023Posted in Letterbox, UncategorizedTagged helen walsh, marketing, publishing, social media, travel, writing life

I don’t know about you, but I gave last weekend’s coronation a pass. The pictures on the news though, all that ceremony and pomp, cheekily reminded me of an event I stumbled upon at the National Gallery when I was in London for the Book Fair. The National Gallery’s Friday Lates is free evening arts programming that varies each week; in this case Life Drawing. Two performance artists interpreted a Renaissance painting from the gallery (The Ugly Duchess) and […]

Special Edition: London Book Fair, Part 1/3

By Helen WalshPosted on April 26, 2023May 16, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged helen walsh, London Book Fair, publishing, travel, writing advice, writing life

I’ve returned from a fascinating week in London in which I stayed in Shepherds Bush, a dynamic area west of Kensington I’d never really visited except to go to meetings at the BBC. My hotel was oddly fascinating. My room triggered an unfortunate muscle memory of Super 8 Motels from US road trips; the breakfast area was filled with publishing types and in the evenings hordes of men speaking Russian, often sporting loud gold jewellery, occupied the main floor […]

Origin Stories + London Book Fair + Book & Film RECs.

By Helen WalshPosted on April 11, 2023April 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged agents, family, helen walsh, publishing, scottish, travel

When my sisters and I were bored or listless, depressed or anguished, our mother would inevitably say, ‘you need a project.’ It set our teeth on end. Did she not understand the nature of heartache? The cruel injustice of the world that handed things to other people – whether that was a loving partner, a paying job, good health or the opportunity to chase your dreams – and denied it to you? We wanted to wallow in […]

Life of a Queen

By Helen WalshPosted on January 23, 2023April 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged book clubs, helen walsh, Queen Mary, Sundance, travel, writing life

Hello stranger. It’s been a while. While the Prince Harry memoir Spare breaks bestselling records, and British journalists sneer yet gobble up every available column inch to denounce it (apparently despising the media pretty much guarantees they despise you back. . .), I’m here to talk about the Queen. And I don’t mean Elizabeth II. Last May, we took a transatlantic crossing between New York and Southampton, England on the Queen Mary 2, decades after my parents and three older […]

Home Again, Dorothy.

By Helen WalshPosted on October 17, 2022April 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged Canada, Cork, Dublin, Home, Italy, Lesvos, Newfoundland, pull focus, Shadow Life, Thanksgiving, travel

Ultimately, I believe home is found in comfort and familiarity. Today, I celebrate all my ancestors who came before, the generations that will come after, and most importantly, the loved ones who walk beside me in this life.

Want To Join Me In Dublin’s Fair City?

By Helen WalshPosted on June 24, 2022April 26, 2023Posted in LetterboxTagged city, discovery, Dublin, events, Film Festival, helen walsh, Hodges Figgis, Ireland, publishing, pull focus, thrillers, travel

The Dublin book launch of Pull Focus, postponed last fall due to Ireland’s strict Covid lockdowns, has been rescheduled for July 12th. I’m entirely delighted. As readers of this newsletter know, I hold dual Canadian and Irish citizenship, and have spent a lot of time in Ireland over the years, visiting friends and family (and my father’s grave, who’s buried in his hometown of Mallow alongside my grandparents). I also partially wrote Pull Focus during two residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie at Annaghmakerrig, […]

Hola, City of Angels 😎 🌴

By Helen WalshPosted on May 2, 2022October 11, 2022Posted in LetterboxTagged city, Diesel Books, Getty, helen walsh, los angeles, publishing, pull focus, santa monica, thrillers, travel, venice beach

Well, that was fun. Meet ‘The Jane’ – a gin, cucumber juice, fennel-infused SoCal kind of cocktail, created by Jonathan the mixologist at Piccolo Santa Monica where I held my long Covid re-scheduled City of Angels (aka, Los Angeles) book launch. A drink as feisty and original as her protagonist namesake. It was wonderful to be back in LA, a city where I previously worked. Years ago, during a two-year run on a crazy entertainment project, I’d fly […]