Northern Exposure

Pillar Talk by Colette Bryce: A poem for #readingirelandmonth20

No 490 The Diviner by Brian Friel #readingirelandmonth20

Brian Friel is known now to the world as one of Ireland’s preeminent playwrights. However, in the mid 1960’s he was more concerned with the short story. It was a brief dalliance as, by 1968, Friel had stopped writing short stories altogether, in favour of writing plays. It is said that Friel found the process…

100 Books by Writers from Northern Ireland for #readingirelandmonth20

The Good Son by Paul McVeigh #readingirelandmonth20

Northern Exposure: No 498 Ratman’s Notebooks by Stephen Gilbert

Mother says there are rats in the rockery. ‘You’ll have to do something about them,’ she says, ‘or they’ll over-run the whole place.’ Ratman’s Notebooks was published in 1968 and was one of only four books that Stephen Gilbert wrote before he stopped writing altogether. The fact that it is still in print is probably…

Ciaran Carson, 1948 – 2019

Last Sunday, the inimitable poet and musician Ciaran Carson died after an illness. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, into an Irish-speaking family, poet Ciaran Carson attended Queen’s University, Belfast. He held the position of traditional arts officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland from 1975 to 1998 and was appointed director of the Seamus…

Northern Exposure: The International by Glenn Patterson (book 13 of #20booksofsummer)

Novels about the city of Belfast have a tendency to be set during the Troubles. It is too ingrained in the very fabric of life here to be otherwise. Glenn Patterson’s novel The International does something different. In January 1967, the inaugural meeting of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association too place in The International…

Northern Exposure: Belfast Stories edited by Lisa Frank & Paul McVeigh

No 522 Truth or Fiction by Jennifer Johnston (Book 6 of #20booksofsummer)

Truth or Fiction by Jennifer Johnston continues my Northern Exposure series which highlight literature from Northern Ireland and is also, helpfully, one of my 20 Books of Summer! Jennifer Johnston’s fiction regularly deals with themes of memory, loss and an inability to come to terms with the past and Truth or Fiction is no different.…

No 525 Secrets and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty (Book 3 of #20booksofsummer)

Northern Exposure is my monthly series where I look at literature from Northern Ireland. I have three books by Northern Irish writers in my 20 Books of Summer stack and the first one up is Secrets and Other Stories by Bernard MacLaverty. Secrets and Other Stories is Bernard MacLaverty’s first short story collection, originally published…