For John Doyle to write about Canadian television is to be expected. For him to write a whole book about Irish television and its impact on the country and his childhood, not only comes as a bit of a surprise, but as a pleasant one at that.

Also just as surprising, as one learns when one talks to Doyle, is just how the box in the corner of the parlour with the flickering black and white lights on the screen profoundly affected his own life, maybe even altering its course forever.

?The quality of the Guinness here is excellent,? Doyle comments as we settle into our snug at The Foggy Dew on King Street West. He settles in behind the table, somewhat glad to be static for a few minutes. He has just concluded conducting an interview at another establishment and can now rely on someone else asking the questions. He had also just arrived back from a hectic book tour, and a successful book launch in Toronto (see story,) earlier in the month, which saw a deluge of Canadian television stars come out to celebrate his new book.

?They?re all afraid of me?I?m only joking when I say that!? he adds quickly. ?In spite of my reputation as an acerbic columnist, I get on well with a lot of them in the Canadian television industry. I am very positive about Canadian television.?

But the subject of his new book, A Great Feast of Light, is actually about television in Ireland, and its impact not only on his childhood but also on his life?s work, and its effects on the entire Irish nation. But unlike many situations on television, which are resolved within an hour or half-hour slot, Doyle?s journey towards penning his book was a long time in coming. It all began with a proposal from a Canadian publishing company.

?I started because I was asked about five years ago after I started writing my daily column for the Globe. [They said] come to us first. It was an open invitation,? he says. He replied, ?Thanks but no thanks?[Then] another publisher expressed interest. So I got myself an agent.?

He began discussions with the publishers about what type of book it was that he wanted to write. Doyle had a few hard-and-fast ground rules that he insisted upon. Firstly, that ?it be a different kind of Irish memoir, one that is not sentimental.? (As fellow Irish writer James Joyce once wrote, ?sentimentality is unearned emotion.?)

?All of those books were fine books?but characterized by a kind of nostalgia for an older Ireland, which creates a natural nostalgia for a time when?people were poorer,? he says. Doyle wanted his book to be different, to write a book that ?was more realistic about the time and place that I grew up.? ?As a TV critic, I was in a unique position?to add to the canon of recent Irish history about the significant implications of changing Irish society,? he says of the introduction of television to Ireland. ?I felt it was time for someone to tackle that topic.

While I was writing it, I tried to avoid reading Irish memoirs.? While he had heard of Irish memoirs like It?s A Long Way From Penny Apples by Bill Cullen, he found that ?the things that influenced me were Nick Hornby?s books like Fever Pitch. It?s a unique sort of memoir.? The book took three years to write, and was delivered to the publishers this past spring.

?It was a difficult, at times grueling experience. I had to write five columns a week,? he says. ?The only day I could work on it was on Sunday, locked in my room, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.?

There were payoffs along the way though, such as giving him an excuse ? as though anyone needs one ? to return to Ireland to conduct research for the book, usually for about a week at a time. His tours included his childhood hometown of Nenagh, County Tipperary, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, and the Dublin neighbourhood of Raheny. His visits would see him ?writing furiously, taking notes, talking to my parents, with them telling me stories of my childhood which would unlock other stories of my own.?

On a visit to County Leitrim last fall, Doyle took out one beautiful morning to retrace some of his childhood steps out in the countryside. ?There was a lovely mist on the river Shannon, very early in the morning,? he remembers. He walked along the country roads, taking notes of signs and familiar landmarks he recalled from his younger days.

?I?m surprised that no one alerted the Gardai that there was a strange man taking notes!? he says with a laugh. Though the book is filled with anecdotes and stories about Ireland and offers a unique glimpse on the Ireland of Doyle?s youth, he is still undecided as to whether he wants it to be published back home.