Niall Williams on the quote that made him ditch the piano and take up writing
What was the first book to make an impression on you? Boy’s Cinema Annual 1949, a large format annual with an olive binding, an ad for Cadbury’s Bournville Cocoa on the back with a giant drawing of a...
View ArticleNeil White: ‘Enid Blyton turned me towards mystery and horror’
What was the first book to make an impression on you? Any one of the Enid Blyton Famous Five books. I remember well the feeling of mild terror as the mystery unfolded, which turned me towards mystery...
View ArticleBrought to Book: Kerry Hudson on the long line of Aberdonian fishwives from...
What was the first book to make an impression on you? I read To Kill a Mockingbird sitting on the steps of my council estate block when I was around 13. It portrayed a tenderness that it wasn’t...
View ArticleDublin, what a character
Dublin features in my novel, Eggshells, almost as a character in itself, a sometimes magical but occasionally sinister character. For Vivian, the protagonist, Dublin is the place she hopes will show...
View Article‘I’m glad I didn’t know Eggshells would be published: not knowing was...
Caitriona Lally was a finalist in the 2014 Irish Writers’ Centre Novel Fair. Her first book, Eggshells, was published by Liberties Press in May. She has been shortlisted for Sunday Independent Newcomer...
View ArticleMark Billingham Q&A: ‘Cops solving crimes with supernatural powers strikes me...
Mark Billingham’s latest novel is The Bones Beneath, published by Grove Press. A former actor, television writer and stand-up comedian, his series of novels featuring DI Tom Thorne has twice won him...
View ArticleAlison Weir: ‘I loved fairy tales from infancy’
Alison Weir lives and works in Surrey. Her books include several works of non-fiction – Britain’s Royal Families, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Children of England, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry VIII:...
View ArticleGerard Lee’s motto: ‘Write something, or there’ll be no cake’
What was the first book to make an impression on you? Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson. What was your favourite book as a child? The Boy with the Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler, published in 1968. I...
View ArticleHerman Koch on being caught by Holden Caulfield
What was the first book to make an impression on you? Robinson Crusoe. I wanted to live on an island just like him. I played I did. What was your favourite book as a child? All the books that featured...
View ArticleBrought to Book: Brian Conaghan on Yossarian, The Fault in our Stars and...
Brian Conaghan was born in 1971 and raised in the Scottish town of Coatbridge. He gained a Master of Letters in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow in 2007. His first novel, The Boy Who...
View ArticleBrought to Book: Myles Dungan on tenacity, discipline, and the digital future...
What was the first book to make an impression on you? Alice in Wonderland. I was about seven years old. I got it for Christmas. At first I was disappointed as there were very few pictures, but when I...
View ArticleBrought to Book: Rob Doyle on Keith Talent, Nietzsche’s morals and stone-cold...
Rob Doyle was born in Dublin, and holds a first-class honours degree in Philosophy and an MPhil in Psychoanalysis from Trinity College Dublin. His first novel, Here Are the Young Men, is published by...
View Article‘A lot of Eggshells is from conversations I overheard. People just have no...
Meeting debut author Caitriona Lally in the Book Upstairs Café on D’Olier Street, I was extremely relieved to discover that, unlike her novel’s main character, her hair wasn’t brittle and her hygiene...
View ArticleBrought to Book: Anakana Schofield on parallel reading, the literary...
Anakana Schofield is the author of the award-winng debut novel, Malarky, which is out now in paperback, a funny and moving tale of sexual shenanigans, martital discord and mental disturbance in the...
View ArticleUCD academic Áine Mahon on Eggshells by Caitriona Lally: ‘a delightful debut’
In Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells we meet Vivian – nine tenths fictional creation and one tenth our own personality. Vivian is independent, creative, brave. She lives alone in Dublin in what was once her...
View ArticleReview: Eggshells, by Caitriona Lally: full of action and humour
In his analysis of the works of James Joyce, the novelist, linguist and literary critic Anthony Burgess maintained that there are two types of novels – those focused on the world at large, with plot...
View ArticleEggshells by Caitriona Lally: ‘priceless thoughts on words and the world’
I sometimes show up to my book club without my homework: I’ve decided I only have time for books worth every moment spent on them. From the first page of Eggshells, I knew it was worth its word count...
View ArticleAnna McPartlin on Barbara Cartland, Enid Blyton and the Barrytown Trilogy
What was the first book to make an impression on you? The first book to really make an impression on me as a teenager was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It was like the curtain was being pulled back,...
View ArticleAnthony Glavin on Eggshells by Caitriona Lally: a novel that keeps its promises
I’ll confess it was with fingers crossed that I opened Caitriona Lally’s beguiling debut novel, Eggshells, of which I had previously seen the first 10,000 words as one of three judges for the Irish...
View ArticleCaitriona Lally on Eggshells: The Irish Times Book Club podcast
The Irish Times Book Club’s in-depth look at Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells reaches its climax with a podcast in which the author reads a passage from her debut novel and discusses...
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