Delvin roots inspire new book by Fonzie Keogh

Once a person leaves Westmeath, there is no doubt that memories of the Lake County leave its mark. This is the case for Westmeath native Fonzie Keogh, who recently released his new book “The Half Crown Man”.

Fonzie grew up in Delvin and is one of seven children, with his father being a local postman in the area.

Like many others at the time, Fonzie left home at a young age without any qualifications, heading for London in search of employment.

While working different jobs in London, he decided to go back to school, studying at night for eight years and gaining a master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and a bachelor's degree in psychology.

Fonzie then moved to Germany, where he now lives and has his own management consultancy, which he has been running for 22 years.

Speaking on what inspired him to get into writing, Fonzie said: “I always liked doing a bit of business writing, and I published a small business book in 2020.

“The main thing that I took away from it was how easy it was, and this little book did pretty well.

“So I thought, if I can do that, maybe I can write a novel, and I've always had fond memories of my time at home in Delvin, especially with this guy who was called the half crown man.”

Fonzie went on to describe his process in developing the story and the characters: “This man was a travelling salesman, selling things from catalogues, and the ladies in the town would pay him half a crown or whatever the deal was, and I always loved how his nickname came from that.

“I wanted to write something that was accessible for my generation, and as the book is based in the 60s, it aims to show Ireland as it was then, which, compared to now, is a completely different place.

“I tried to capture both the language and how people spoke to each other at the time, and let the landscape of the area bleed into the story, like with churches and pubs, which are involved in a lot of Irish stories from that time.

Describing how he gets inspired to write, and the approach he takes, Fonzie said: ”I would do some writing at home, then I would bring my dog for a walk, sending myself 100 emails before we got home, so a good portion of this book was written on my mobile phone while out walking Fido.

“That's just my kind of creativity, I do something and then take a walk or just step away from it, what happens is the thing you were trying to deal with then pops into your brain uninvited while doing something else.

“Of course you have to get it down real quick, and that's where I would stop, send the email, and go back to walking again.”

For those interested in getting a copy of Fonzie Keogh’s new book, you can do so on Amazon, either through Kindle or paperback.