The opening ceremony at the 37th Writers’ Week Festival in Listowel was a grand affair this year with the handing out of substantial cash prizes in various categories: Joseph O’Connor had the audience splitting their sides with the humour from one of his books– itself a sketch of being at a writers’ festival.

The main prize was the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award 2007. This year’s short-listed novels were: ‘Christine Falls’ by Benjamin Black (actually John Banville); ‘Julius Winsome’ by Gerard Donovan; ‘Paula Spencer’ by Roddy Doyle; ‘Tenderwire’ by Claire Kilroy; ‘Winterwood’ by Patrick McCabe. Carlo Gebler and Anne Enright picked the short-list and the eventual winner was Roddy Doyle.

I had to start school the following day. I went to the Community School up the road like a world-weary lifelong learner, but the enthusiasm was tremendous. Nuala O’Faolain (memoir), Gerry Stembridge (comedy), and Billy Roche (creative writing) were giving workshops. The workshop tradition was inaugurated by Bryan MacMahon in Listowel in the 1970s.

There was craic in John B. Keane’s pub on Friday night, and ‘The Healing’ which takes place every year in John B’s on Sunday, which is a free-for-all for artists and poets.

I went to the Kingdom bar for Poet’s Corner, a well-mannered session giving voice to many performers, including myself (poetry: we think out loud), proving that ‘the Irish Literary Tradition is a living thing’. The evening was introduced by George Rowley from Beaumount in Dublin, who had just launched his ‘A Memoir’.

Book launches, drama, art and photography exhibitions, and music performances were the stuff of the four days. A statue of John B. Keane (pictured right) was unveiled by Niall Tobin in the small square in Listowel where the wind was laced with rain.

Andrew Motion, the UK Poet Laureate, was there to give a reading of what sounded like free verse, with recitation like a train. He said there were two parts to a poem: the conscious part you can follow, and the subconscious part. He said that the poet needed three things: To engage with life (no ivory towers); to read (for ideas); and to find the magic in ordinary things. As Poet Laureate, he responds to significant events in the royal calendar, like the Queen’s birthday, and also watches national events.

Esther Perel spoke about her book ‘Mating in Captivity– Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic’. The book is already a best-seller in many countries.

I don’t know if this book contains the formula for passion but it is certainly an interpretation of what’s happening in relationships in the modern world. She should know, as she is practising (in eight languages) as a couples and family psychotherapist with a private practice in New York City.

Melvyn Bragg, who since 1978, has been writer, editor and presenter of ‘The South Bank Show’, was one of the highlights. He was talking about ‘12 Books That Changed The World’ among which are ‘The Rule Book of Association Football’ (1863), ‘On The Origin of the Species’ by Charles Darwin, and ‘Marie Stopes’s ‘Married Love’ (1918), which dealt with pleasure and contraception for the first time.

They couldn’t print enough of these, and copies of the book were being smuggled in suitcases into America, where it was banned. The book revolutionised people’s thinking about sexuality and fertility.

Alain de Botton, a Swiss philosopher, living in London spoke and gave a slide show ‘Architecture of Happiness’, a book about architecture, and how it influences our lives.

Leaving Listowel the next day, I reflected that there had been less craic than culture. And with everyone down there concentrating on their art, it had been a serious business, but still very heartening.