Yesterday saw my final review for my Brian Moore at 100 Readalong challenge which celebrated one of Belfast’s greatest literary exports during his centenary year. It has been an absolute joy to immerse myself in so much of his work and to relish his skillful storytelling and depth of characterisation across a diverse range of…
Read more My Year with Brian Moore #brianmoore100
Caroline Blackwood is probably not best known for her writing. Heiress to the Guinness fortune, Blackwood was celebrated as a great beauty and dazzling ‘muse’ courtesy of her high-profile marriages first to the artist Lucian Freud, then to the composer Israel Citkowitz and finally to the poet Robert Lowell. Born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster, she was presented as a debutante…
Read more No 430 Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood #readingirelandmonth21
Calling Mostly Hero a novella might be pushing my luck slightly. A long short story maybe? No matter how you categorise it though, Mostly Hero is an amusing and unexpected romp through the world of superheroes as depicted by the unique voice of Booker Prize-winner Anna Burns. Published as an e-book before the publication (and…
Read more No 460 Mostly Hero by Anna Burns #NovNov
It just goes to show that in this small country nearly every family has undergone a loss. Even minor psychological scars run as deep here as bullet holes but, without them, our writing would not have its passion and depth. Northern Irish writer Rosemary Jenkinson in The Irish Times One by One in the Darkness…
Read more No 468 One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden