The Book - Thief's Heartbeat, by Philip Davison

I contacted the author of the photo of Ciaran on the front cover of the book, and here is his kind answer:

"Thanks for your email, it brought me back about 20 years...I didn't think the book was still on sale anywhere.

Anyway, some details. I was a friend of the author, Philip Davison, and he asked me to shoot the cover of his (then) latest book. He also knew Ciaran Hinds and asked him to "pose" for the photo. This must have been in the late 70's, early 80's - it'll say somewhere in your copy when the book was published.

The shot was done in Bewley's Cafe in Grafton St. Dublin, where a bunch of us used to hang out. It used to be a fantastic cafe then, but sadly time and economics have now turned it into a less attractive but more profitable food outlet. Back then it was all coffee aroma, tobacco smoke, chatty waitresses and lovely...the sort of place Sabastian Dangerfield would nurse his hangovers in.

I photographed Ciaran through an etched glass door, I think using Tri-X film. Processed it to get the grain and was delighted with the results - it still remains one of my favorite pictures of my career as a photographer. I don't remember whether I even charged a fee for doing the job, money was less important then.

Anyway, I didn't meet Ciaran again until I was doing the unit stills on a film called "Veronica Guerin" directed by Joel Schumacker about 5 years ago. He['d put on a bit of weight, but was still the same nice guy

I hope that's of some help, very glad you like the picture, very happy to hear that it's still out there...somewhere."

You can look at Mr Hession's work on his website.

Jonathan Hession website
read more about the book