Maria Duffy Q&A: ‘I can get a week’s work done between 1am and 7am’
Maria Duffy is a bestselling Irish author and her latest novel, One Wish (Hachette Ireland) is out now in paperback. mariaduffy.ie What was the first book to make an impression on you? Other than Enid...
View ArticlePhilip Taffs: Hitchcock disciple turned Gillian Flynnaphile
Philip Taffs has worked as an advertising copywriter in his native Australia for more than years. He is a PEN prize-winning short story writer, and lives in Melbourne with his wife and his two sons....
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 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 ArticleNiall 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 ArticleEbooks: Can’t decide what to read? Let somebody else choose for you
I spent last month following the lead of Louisa Cameron, patron of my local bookshop, Raven Books, who was making a concerted effort to read and promote the work of women writers in translation....
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 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 ArticleA sneak preview of next Saturday’s books coverage in The Irish Times
On the fiction front this week, Irish Times crime-writing columnist Declan Burke reviews Belfast Noir, a Northern anthology edited by Stuart Neville and Adrian McKinty. Eileen Battersby reviews Uppsala...
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 ArticleEggshells by Caitriona Lally review – a daring debut
An eccentric outsider roams around Dublin in an inventive and moving debut...
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 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 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 ArticleCaitriona Lally on writing Eggshells: from the dole to a debut novel
In the summer of 2014, I got word that Liberties Press was interested in publishing my first novel, Eggshells. Three years previously, I had kept notebooks to record conversations I’d overheard on...
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 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 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 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...
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