Announcing the Brian Moore at 100 Read-along for 2021!
During 2021, I am delighted to be joining forces with the official Brian Moore at 100 team and the brilliant author Jan Carson to celebrate the work of one of Northern Ireland’s finest writers, Brian Moore, in his centenary year.
Belfast-born Brian Moore (1921 – 1999) is probably best known outside Ireland as the author of The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, one of the few of his books still in print. He was described in the LA Times as “one of the few genuine masters of the contemporary novel” , was Graeme Greene’s favourite contemporary writer and wrote 26 novels over the space of 50 years. Writing in a variety of diverse genres he lived most of his adult life in Canada and the U.S. and his first four books were banned in his native Ireland.
He was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1975 and the inaugural Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1987, and he was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times (in 1976, 1987 and 1990). Moore also wrote screenplays, including an outline for Hitchcock’s 1966 classic Torn Curtain and several of his books were made into films.
It’s quite astounding that a writer of such calibre, who had incredible critical and public success during his life should now be effectively out of print. In 2021, the centenary of Moore’s birth, the Brian Moore at 100 project aims to critically appraise, and thus revive scholarly and public interest in the work of this neglected and important writer.
I am delighted to be hosting this year long read-along of Brian Moore’s work. I will be reading one of his books each month and will discuss it in the last week of that month. Here are the 12 books we have selected as a great introduction to the work of this more versatile and under-appreciated of writers.
January | Lies of Silence (1999) |
February | The Feast of Lupercal (1957) |
March | Fergus (1970) |
April | The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne(1955) |
May | The Doctor’s Wife (1976) |
June | No Other Life (1993) |
July | Cold Heaven (1983) |
August | The Temptation of Eileen Hughes (1981) |
September | The Emperor of Icecream (1965) |
October | The Dear Departed: Short Stories (2020) |
November | Catholics (1972) |
December | The Magician’s Wife (1997) |
Throughout the year I will also be reading and reviewing Patricia Craig’s wonderful biography of Brian Moore, exploring his work writing for cinema, watching the film adaptations of his books and will be welcoming some special guests to the blog, including Turnpike Books, who have just published Moore’s Selected Stories.
I would love it if some of you could read-along with me, but I am aware it won’t be easy given that so much of Moore’s work is out of print. The Dear Departed and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne are still in print, while The Magician’s Wife, Catholics, Lies of Silence, No Other Life and The Doctor’s Wife are all available as eBooks.
Some brilliant bloggers have already reviewed The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne including Jacqui, Ali, Karen, Naomi, Kim at Reading Matters has reviewed Lies of Silence and Guy has reviewed The Feast of Lupercal, as has Jonathan. Brian Moore has also been championed by John Self over at Asylum who has reviewed 10 of his novels and by Lizzy who has also reviewed 10!
Most of his novels are still available from online second-hand sellers. I’d also love to hear from some of my Canadian bookish friends on how Moore is considered in his adopted country.












I do hope some of you can join me in the celebration of one of Ireland’s finest writers.
About Brian Moore
Belfast and Beyond: 1921-1948
Brian Moore was born in August 1921 into a middle-class Catholic family, the fourth of nine children, at Clifton Street in Belfast. An alumnus of St. Malachy’s College – thinly veiled as Ardath College in Moore’s second novel, The Feast of Lupercal (1957) – his weakness at mathematics thwarted efforts to matriculate at Queen’s University. In September 1940, he joined the Air Raid Precautions as a warden, a role that inspired the third of his “Belfast Trilogy” of novels, The Emperor of Ice-Cream (1965).
Moore was peripatetic during the years 1943 to 1948: after securing a job with the British Ministry of War Transport, he was posted to Algiers, Naples, Toulon and Marseilles; after the war, he was sent to Warsaw by his new employer, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In January 1948, he followed his lover, Margaret Swanson, to her home country: Canada.
Montreal: 1948-1959
The relationship didn’t last but Moore stayed in Canada. He moved to Montreal and secured a position as proofreader, and eventually reporter, at the Montreal Gazette. By the early 1950s, Moore had begun selling fiction to the Montreal-based Weekend magazine. His first story, “Sassenach,” was published in the Canadian periodical Northern Review in 1951. He also supplemented his reporter’s income by publishing pulp novels for Harlequin Books: two of them, Wreath for a Redhead and The Executioners, appeared under his own name in 1951. (He left the Gazette in 1952). He eventually published five more pulp novels under the pseudonyms Bernard Mara and Michael Bryan (1954-57).
Moore married Jacqueline Sirois (née Scully) in February 1951 and the couple had a son, Michael, who was born not long after Moore became a Canadian citizen in November 1953. Around the same time, he was completing his first “literary” novel, Judith Hearne, set primarily in a boarding house on Camden Street in Belfast. After several rejections, he eventually placed it with André Deutsch in London, who brought it out in May 1955. He followed up with another Belfast-set novel, The Feast of Lupercal (1957).
New York * Belfast/London * New York: 1959-1965
In May 1959, Moore took up a Guggenheim Fellowship – which required him to live in the U.S. for a year – and never returned to Canada to live. (During the last years of his life, he and his wife spent summers at their holiday home near Port Medway in Nova Scotia). The Luck of Ginger Coffey, his only novel set entirely in Canada, came out in 1960 and was followed up by his New York-set An Answer from Limbo (1962). Moore’s first four (mainstream) novels were banned in Ireland.
California: 1965-1991
In the autumn of 1964, Moore left Jackie for Jean Russell (née Denney), whom he married in 1967. In March 1965, the couple relocated to Hollywood, where Moore was contracted to work on a film outline, which became Torn Curtain (1966), with Alfred Hitchcock. The Emperor of Ice-Cream came out later that year.
The couple lived in California for the rest of Moore’s life: from 1966, this was in a house in Malibu, still occupied by Jean after Moore’s death, that burned down during the Woolsey fire in late 2018. During that time, Moore published fourteen more novels, including The Great Victorian Collection (1975), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and the Booker-shortlisted The Doctor’s Wife (1976), The Colour of Blood (1987) and Lies of Silence (1990). He taught creative writing at UCLA from 1973 to 1990 and was awarded an honourary degree from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1987.
Brian Moore died in 1999.
Brian Moore 100 Irish Literature Northern Exposure #brianmoore100 brian moore irish literature Northern Exposure read-along
Cathy746books View All →
I am a 40 something book buying addict trying to reduce the backlog one book at a time!
Wonderful!
I already have The Lonely Passion because I read an enticing review of it at Jonathan’s blog Intermittencies of the Mind:
https://bulbynorman.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/the-feast-of-lupercal-by-brian-moore
It looks like I ordered it there and then but haven’t got round to reading it!
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That’s great Lisa – it’s a fantastic book, I’m looking forward to rereading it.
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What a great idea. I have a few of Moore’s books here that I haven’t read yet.
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Brilliant Jonathan! I’ve just realised that you’ve already reviewed a couple of Moore’s books so I’ll update the post to include them.
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Thanks Cathy. I’ve just had a look and I have Cold Heaven, The Doctor’s Wife and The Mangan Inheritance. I nearly started CH the other day.
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I was a little obsessed with Cold Heaven when I was about 17. It will be really interesting to see what I make of it 30 years on!
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It does look like a good read.
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I’m trying to get my hands on a copy of the Nic Roeg film adaptation but it’s proving very difficult!
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I’m always impressed by your enthusiastic and detailed projects! Moore is almost completely unfamiliar to me, though I have heard of Judith Hearne. My public library has a copy of that, while the university library has most of his others, so I will certainly try at least one next year and will try to coincide with your schedule.
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Thanks Rebecca – this is one I was really keen to be part of. Don’t worry if you can’t match up with the schedule – it will.just be great to see Moore get a bit more attention!
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Lovely! Like a lot of people, I’ve only read Judith Hearne, but it was wonderful – it ended up on my best books read last year: https://www.stuckinabook.com/my-top-ten-books-of-2019/
The only other book I’ve got by him isn’t in your schedule – The Great Victorian Collection – but I’ll read it in the spirit of BM at 100 next year nonetheless!
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Thanks Simon, I’ll link your Judith Hearne review to the post! Any Brian Moore is a good Brian Moore so I look forward to hearing about The Great Victorian Collection (which I haven’t read!l
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Great idea, Cathy! Count me in. I have The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and I will try to find the other books on my local lbrary. 🙂
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Excellent! Thank you x
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This sounds like an excellent year of reading. I will certainly join in, perhaps investing in some Brian Moore with any Christmas book tokens.
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Thanks Ali x
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What a marvelous project! I’m absolutely the worst at participating in reading challenges, but having read a couple of his books long ago I’d like to try to pick up another next year. He’s certainly an author that deserves championing.
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The good thing about this is there are no rules! Just read one of his books at some point. That’s the kind of challenge I like!
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I’m so upset now as I had all these books before I downsized and had to get rid of a lot, among them many of Brian’s. All I retained was the Judith Hearne, No Other Silence and Lies of Silence, so at least I have three on my shelves for the reading in 2021. Now. all I need is time for although Covid has kept me indoors I seem to have filled the time easily, and no extra reading hours were vouchsafed me. So, roll on January but I have Gabriel Byrne’s book, a Carl Hiassen and a Hakan Nesser to finish before I can pick up a Brian Moore. What a luxurious time I’m about to have!
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Quite a few of mine are my late Daddy’s – he was a massive Moore fan (another reason I’m delighted to be hosting this one!). It’s so hard to keep books isn’t it? We are drowning in them at our house and I’m going to have to think of getting rid of some…
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What a fun project! And I enjoyed reading all about Brian Moore’s life. (I’ve read it before but he was so busy I can never keep it all straight.)
I don’t know how the rest of Canada feels about him, but from what I have known about him, he’s considered a beloved Canadian writer. In fact, I was surprised when I first learned how few of his years he actually spent here. The best thing, though, is that he had a cottage in Port Medway – it’s beautiful there!
I know I have a couple more of his books somewhere – I think one of them is Ginger Coffey, which would be fun to finally read!
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That’s so interesting Naomi – I knew that he was often considered a Canadian writer. I wonder do you have many of his books in print?
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It doesn’t look like it. It looks as though Judith Hearne is the only reliable one to buy new. But, in my experience, there are lots at the used book stores!
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Same here!
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Ah – I think of Brian Moore as a beloved Canadian writer, too, Naomi. He did win our Governor-General’s Award for Fiction twice.
Sadly, the only one of his books that I’ve read is Ginger Coffey and I’m disappointed to not see it on the reading list. Maybe because it’s set in Montreal. I think you will enjoy it.
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I plan to read outside the list Debbie and have read Ginger Coffey before but looking forward to revisiting it. I do hope you can take part.
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Oh good, it’s not just me! 🙂
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Thank you for doing this, thereby introducing me to a new-to-me author. Lies of Silence came in for me at the library this week. I’ll be starting on it next week [we have a nice long loan period over Christmas].
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Excellent! Lies of Silence is such a taut thriller – enjoy x
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I have read several Brian Moore novels. One that particularly stands out for me is ‘Black Robe’, his Quebec novel.
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It’s not in the 12 but I do plan to read it too. So many people saying that it’s good.
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I’ve never heard of Brian Moore how can that be when he was so prolific and successful? and how can it be that so much of his work is out of print? incredible. Thank you for this introduction, I’ll be adding him to my reading next year and look forward to following your read-along!
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Thanks Jane! He’s probably one of the most sucessful writers to come out of NI and yet he’s been largely forgotten. Judith Hearne is a modern classic, but so are so many of his other books. I do hope more readers discover him in his centenary year.
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I am embarrassed to admit that I am unfamiliar with Brian Moore. But I see that our library system has copies of many of his novels, so I will try to join in on at least one next year!
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Don’t be embarrassed, he has been pretty much forgotten, even here in NI where he would have been one of our most successful writers! I do hope you can take part x
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Sounds intriguing. I’ve never read anything by him so I’ll wait to see if your reviews tempt me to join in. Have fun!
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Good plan FF – he wrote in so many different genres!
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What an interesting project! Brian Moore is one of those wonderfully neglected writers whom I’ve always meant to get around to; this sounds like my chance! I have Judith Hearne, Catholics and the NYRB Classics edition of Moore’s Mangan Inheritance. Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze one in, although I notice that Mangan isn’t on your schedule.
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Oh I do hope you can join in! Don’t worry if you aren’t reading to the schedule or reading a different book – as long as Moore is getting read, we’ll be happy!
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I also thought Brian Moore was “just” Canadian until you opened my eyes. I’ve read Black Robe and I think it was assigned reading for some students here (not me, I just picked it up in a used bookstore.) It’s been many years since I read it, but I think it may be viewed as problematic today in terms of his depiction of Indigenous people. Getting some factual stuff wrong, and depicting them as “savages” etc which was probably pretty common at the time and persists today among white writers depicting Indigenous people in fiction. So I might just leave that one alone and try something else.
Quite a few of these are available from my library, or maybe I’ll shell out for The Lonely Passion, as it comes in a nice New Canadian Library edition. I better make a note on my calendar!
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Yes, I’d imagine some things haven’t aged well to be honest. Judith Hearne is a gorgeous book though and well worth a read.
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I have all of Moore’s novels. At one time I intended to work my way through them. It’s still a work in progress but I have ticked off 10. Reviews at: https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/page/2/?s=Moore
I’ll tick off more as I join in with your reading schedule next year. Looking forward to it.
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Brilliant Lizzy! I’ll link to your reviews in the post. It should be an interesting reading year!
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Sorry – wrong hyperlink in previous comment. here’s the correct one.
https://lizzysiddal.wordpress.com/?s=Brian+Moore
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It is truly shocking to learn that he’s mostly out of print now! I’ve never read him but I will absolutely be joining you in reading The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne this year, at least to start with.
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Excellent! Look forward to hearing what you think.
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I had not seen this until today. I was already planning to read Black Robe in January (for the Canadian Reading Challenge and because we recently bought a copy of the film adaptation). I will plan to read The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne in April (assuming I can get at copy), and maybe others.
This is wonderful. All the information about Brian Moore, laying it out where he lived when and all the things he did. I may be interested in the biography also. I read a biography of Ross Macdonald in 2020 and enjoyed it immensely (partly because he lived in Santa Barbara).
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That’s brilliant Tracy, I’m delighted that you will take part.
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I missed this until today. I’ve got a half-dozen or so Moores including one I haven’t read: The Color of Blood. I should read that!
My edition is spelled American-style, even though it’s a McClelland & Stewart paperback. The biography does say he was living in California at the time…
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That’s great Reese – really hope you can join in!
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