It is unusual for a self-published book to receive plaudits from the Irish Times, The Examiner, other local papers and indeed RTE’s Nationwide team plan to ‘air’ the story of the book toward end of October. ‘Quondam: Travels in a Once World’ was introduced by Dervla Murphy and formally launched in the new Art Centre, Skibbereen in Sept 2018. The previous June, it was accepted for a ‘pre-launch at Immrama, the Travel writers Festival in Dervla’s hometown of Lismore,. Since then and, reader by reader, it’s been causing a quite ripple of interest. Should there be surprise? Perhaps not.

When veterans such as Dervla Murphy and Ted Simon sing its praises, maybe a lover of a good book is on to a winner! Ted Simon himself, author of the iconic ‘Jupiters Travels’ wrote of it... ‘This is a traveller’s banquet of passion and hard-earned wisdom. I once wrote that all I could hope to do was to make a narrow track around the globe on my bike and extrapolate. John Devoy is The Extrapolator,’ Murphy thinks the writing is ‘...exceptional,’ and added that ‘...some books need photos, this one doesn’t.’ By all accounts, if one is to read the reviews on Goodreads, on Amazon and on Devoy’s own website, readers seem to wholeheartedly agree. One elder lady wrote, ‘This was the best book I’ve read all year. I’m 84. I don’t have much time, please hurry with the sequel!’ – if that isn’t pressure for an author! So, what is it all about? Quondam, (meaning ‘former’ or ‘a period of time that has passed,’) is the first installment of a planned trilogy.