Cover stories: Ireland, Linda Polman, Sheila Hancock

London publishers have long cast lascivious glances at Ireland where, pro rata, many more books are sold. Dublin publishers have nurtured innumerable young writers, among them Patricia Scanlan, Cathy Kelly, Eoin Colfer and, of course, Marian Keyes – all of whom accepted more lucrative contracts from UK houses. Both Hodder Headline and Penguin have now announced they are opening for business in Dublin, publishing locally while offering a one-stop shop to authors with appeal beyond the Irish Sea. That move comes hot on the heels of a decision by the agency PFD to open an outpost in the city. It's all good news for aspirant Irish writers, but bad news for the country's many excellent publishers.

* How nice that agents occasionally put money where their mouths are. Toby Eady – Mary Wesley's son, husband of Chinese media dissident Xinran, and the man behind the success of Jung Chang's Wild Swans – has just sold an account of life in UN refugee camps to Penguin. The author, Linda Polman, is a Dutch journalist, and her narrative is a powerful indictment of the West's ability to close its eyes to distant horrors. Eady has contributed to the translation costs to ensure that the book reaches as wide a public as possible.

* Sheila Hancock has signed up for a biography of her late husband, John Thaw. Even though the subject is (sadly) no longer here to read it, Bloomsbury will confidently expect a hit on the scale of Pamela Stephenson's Billy in 2004.