Northern Exposure

No 430 Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood #readingirelandmonth21

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…

Lies of Silence by Brian Moore for #BrianMoore100

Announcing the Brian Moore at 100 Read-along for 2021!

No 460 Mostly Hero by Anna Burns #NovNov

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…

Derek Mahon, 1941 – 2020

Tea At Four O’Clock by Janet McNeill for the #1956Club

Recent Crime Fiction from Ireland!

No 468 One by One in the Darkness by Deirdre Madden

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…

No 485 Fat Lad by Glenn Patterson

Glenn Patterson’s Fat Lad has long been described as one of the quintessential Belfast novels. The title comes from a mnemonic used in Northern Ireland to remember the names of the six counties – Fermanagh, Antrim, Tyrone, Londonderry, Armagh, Down – and yet the entire book is set in the capital city. Drew Linden, Belfast…