Books

Gavin McCrea bares his soul in a deeply personal book. Photo: Eugene Langan

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‘I would willingly have watched my family choke and die’ – Gavin McCrea’s startling memoir

As a literary genre, most understand the memoir to be intensely inward-looking – something one ideally composes in isolation, away from the distraction of others. But who are we without other people?

Barbara Kingsolver has crafted a gem in 'Demon Copperhead'. Picture by Evan Kafka

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Demon Copperhead is a brilliant Dickensian take on America’s 21st century underclass

Don’t read Demon Copperhead. Not now. Not because it’s not good (if anything, this heartbreaking, heartlifting story is one of the best you’ll read this year) but because it’s the perfect book to save for Christmas, when there is time to give entire afternoons over to enjoying its hefty 548 pages, and the head space to allow Demon’s fizzing, tenacious spirit fill your mind.

Matt Perry has struggled with addiction. Picture by Nigel Parry

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The one where the actor comes clean: Review of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry’s memoir

As Matthew Perry’s acting career was reaching its highest point, his personal life was falling apart. In 2001, the star was earning nearly $1m (€1m) an episode playing Chandler Bing in Friends when his character married Monica Gellar in arguably the defining moment in one of the most-watched TV shows in history. But after the cameras stopped rolling on the wedding scene, the actor was driven in a pickup truck back to the rehab clinic where he was living.

Award-winning writer Kevin Barry. Picture by Louise Manifold

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Kevin Barry: ‘When I was four I'd recite my favourite Ladybird book to my family most nights’

Kevin Barry writes novels, plays, stories and screenplays at home in Co Sligo. His award-winning work includes the novels Night Boat to Tangier, Beatlebone and City of Bohane and the short story collections Dark Lies the Island and There are Little Kingdoms. He is also the co-editor and publisher of Winter Papers, the annual arts anthology, the new edition of which is available now from book stores and from winterpapers.com

The Dingle Literary Festival begins this Friday. Stock photo

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Wild swimming in Ireland, Dingle literary festival and the wonder of Winterval in Waterford

It’s possibly a tad early to mention it, but the perfect stocking filler for the mermaid (or merman) in your life just landed on my desk. The Art of Wild Swimming Ireland (Black & White Publishing, €14.99) is Anna Deacon and Vicky Allan’s expert guide to wild swimming adventures around the island.

In 'Black Light', the central character is tormented by the unsolved murder of a sibling. Picture posed

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Detective John Lazarus rises to the challenge in crime writer’s debut novel Black Light

As a renowned crime correspondent, journalist Michael O’Toole has covered stories of murder, drug seizures, sexual assaults and human trafficking. This ringside view of how crime is committed, how it’s investigated by An Garda Síochána and how it’s reported by the media is evident in Black Light, his powerful debut.

Timothy Phillips explores a number of major Cold War moments. Photo: Sam James

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Reviews of The Curtain and The Wall, and Abyss: Revisiting frontiers and catastrophes of the Cold War

On May 12, 1945, just days after the Allies defeated Nazism in Europe, Winston Churchill sent Harry S Truman a private telegraph warning the US President that the post-war Soviet sphere of influence in central and eastern Europe could potentially push the continent towards tyranny.

Mark Zuckerberg. Photo by David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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The Moderator: Chris Gray reveals the personal cost of trawling toxic Facebook content for €13 an hour

Five years ago, when Facebook was still expanding, it loudly announced the recruitment of 3,000 more content moderators. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was responding to growing criticism from politicians and the public about the upsurge in suicides, rapes, assaults and even murders being streamed on the platform. Because Facebook outsources its content moderation, hiring the new staff fell to subcontractors such as CPL in Dublin. It had to find 400 moderators in a hurry. One of them was Chris Gray.

‘We are literally finishing each other’s sentences’: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. Photo by Tim Llewellyn

‘Trans people are at risk now more than ever’: Mad Honey authors Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is famous for tackling sensitive, controversial subjects in her fiction. Over 25 novels, she has written about abortion, white supremacy, school shootings and the right to die. Her latest work explores one of our current moment’s most heated topics: gender identity. It was co-written with Jennifer Finney Boylan, a former professor at University College Cork and author known for her non-fiction, including her 2003 memoir about her transition, She’s Not There.

Man of action: Erskine Childers in the British army. Photo by Hulton Archive via Getty

From British army soldier to Asgard gun-runner: Erskine Childers’ life was stranger than his fiction

No novelist gets close to Erskine Childers when it comes to living the life of the books. Ian Fleming and John le Carré may have worked as intelligence agents before using their protagonists, James Bond and George Smiley, to play out their fantasies, but Childers first invented the modern spy thriller, then spent the rest of his turbulent life trying to outdo the adventures of his own creation. Executed by firing squad in Dublin 100 years ago this month, to the very end he exhibited the cool, upper-class insouciance of the character he so desperately wanted to become.

John Grisham, author of The Boys from Biloxi

John Grisham’s tale of corruption beside the sea, and the woman who set her sights on Agatha Christie’s husband

Thriller: The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham Hodder & Stoughton, 464 pages, hardcover €27.50; e-book £22

Robin Stevens, author of The Ministry of Unladylike Activity. Photo: Chris Close

You Must Read This: Robin Stevens on A Tale of Time City, a story that defies genre

Agatha Christie was the author who taught me to write mysteries, but Diana Wynne Jones was the author who taught me to write people.

TikTok sensastion: Hoover’s fans are dubbed ‘CoHorts’

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How Colleen Hoover became the world’s biggest author

Colleen Hoover is the reigning queen of #BookTok. If you’ve never heard her name before, that distinction will do little to clear things up. It’s TikTok’s literary corner, where millions of readers share their “to be read” piles and author “Top 5” reveals. And it’s characterised by zealous devotion to a handful of authors. Here, the prolific scribe of steamy romance novels has a cloying celeb nickname (“CoHo”) and a cultishly devoted fan hive (her “CoHort”).

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Author Fiacre Ryan: ‘Autism is a life sentence for those who committed no crime’

In many ways, Carmel Ryan’s middle child Fiacre is much the same as any 21-year-old. “He lies around the house, taking up the whole couch,” Carmel smiles. “He hogs the television, he hogs the iPad. He plays loud music. His needs are simple, really. He loves his food, he loves his exercise, he loves getting out and about. He’s very good-humoured, quite sociable, and he’s great company. We just laugh at some of the things he comes out with.”

Fergal Keane reporting from Ukraine in 2016. Photo courtesy of BBC/State of Grace Films

The Madness: Fergal Keane performs an exorcism and a public pledge

Twenty years ago an Irish psychiatrist researching dementia at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine made a striking discovery. Dr Deirdre Johnston showed that, decades after those conflicts, veterans of World War II and Korea were prone to dramatic bouts of delayed post-traumatic stress disorder with the onset of dementia.

Shane McGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke with Louis Walsh at The Park Cafe in Ballsbridge. Photo: Frank McGrath

‘It’s like my dirty laundry’ – Shane MacGowan goes in search of new crock of gold as he launches art book

The Pogues legendary frontman Shane MacGowan said his new book, The Eternal Buzz & The Crock of Gold airs his “dirty laundry” at its launch in Ballsbridge, Dublin, this evening.

Sharp analysis: Bob Dylan. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Philosophy of Modern Song: Bob Dylan riffs on old favourites

It has been 18 years since Bob Dylan’s marvellous memoir Chronicles: Volume One was published, and hopes for a second volume have faded with each passing year.

Eoghan Daltun details his journey in 'An Irish Atlantic Rainforest'

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Rewilding Ireland and Britain: Two journeys into returning ‘zombie’ plantations to lush rainforests

Today, COP27 kicks off in Egypt. For the delegates – who will go on to the Montreal COP on biodiversity in December – two urgent books on our disappearing temperate rainforests should be required reading: Eoghan Daltun’s An Atlantic Rainforest, and The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole.

Kellie Harrington and Roddy Doyle are on the same wavelength. Photo: Ellie Smith.

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Kellie Harrington’s warmth and humility shine through in this endearing memoir

She does not always have the eye of the tiger, Kellie Harrington, because she doesn’t have the cold heart for her opponents that elite performers in the fight trade usually do.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walked away from the royal family. Photo: Dominic Lipinski

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Backstabbing and betrayal of Britain’s royal court is laid bare

When I hear the word courtier my mind goes to two places – the Tudor Court as portrayed by Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall, and to Queen Anne as played by Olivia Colman in The Favourite.

John Grisham is on top form in his latest thriller

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Master craftsman John Grisham brings us his latest tale of crime and punishment

Ever since The Firm appeared in 1991, I’ve been a sucker for John Grisham’s gripping thrillers. And his latest, The Boys from Biloxi, captivates the reader from the off.

John Banville is one of our greatest writers. Photo: Gerry Mooney

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John Banville’s The Singularities feels like a ‘greatest hits’ of his previous novels

John Banville is Ireland’s greatest living novelist. A controversial statement? I think not. Who else has produced several of what by any measure qualify as “great” individual works – I have in mind, among others, Birchwood (1973), Kepler (1981), The Newton Letter (1982), The Book of Evidence (1989) and Shroud (2002) – as well as a wider oeuvre of considerable distinction?

'The Heart and the Arrow' showcases Leland Bardwell's brilliance

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Collection of Leland Bardwell’s revealing and well-observed gems

Leland Bardwell is rarely spoken of these days, despite her large body of work and her enormous talent. Playwright, novelist, short story writer and poet, Bardwell was writing right up until her death in 2016, at the age of 94.

Ally Bunbury's new book, 'All Wrapped Up', has just been published

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Novelist Ally Bunbury: ‘Jilly Cooper's beautiful, stylish and outrageous characters sparked my imagination’

Ally Bunbury is a best-selling novelist who lives in Rathvilly, Co Carlow. Inspired by the TV sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, she embarked upon a PR career, and during a sabbatical in Paris, wrote the draft of her first novel, The Inheritance.

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John Irving’s ‘big novel’ swan song has a familiar air

There’s something elegiac about a novel being declared by its 80-year-old author to be his “last big novel”. And it’s big. It’s Ducks, Newburyport big.

Johnny Depp with Shane MacGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke, who have been friends for many years. Picture: Steve Humphreys

Johnny Depp on Shane MacGowan: ‘There’s another side to my great friend that doesn’t get as much acknowledgement as it should’

Assume I do, that if you’re reading this book, you are aware of Shane MacGowan, and his work as the genius punk-poet of The Pogues; a band so powerful and beloved that neither their importance nor influence can ever be undervalued.

Shane MacGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke at their home in Ballsbridge. Picture: Frank McGrath

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‘We shagged everywhere in the early days — we had a voracious sexual appetite. It probably was helped by the drugs and the drink’

Van Morrison’s unmistakable lilt fills Shane MacGowan’s Dublin 4 living room. The Pogue is propped up in what looks like a hospital-issue lime green armchair and Van’s songs blare loudly from the TV that is parked in front of him.

Tracey Corbett Lynch, sister of Jason Corbett, the Limerick man killed by his American wife and father-in-law in 2015. Photo by Don Moloney

Loss and What It Taught Me About Living: Murder victim’s sister Tracey Corbett Lynch shines a light on grief

We all have to face loss and private grief at some stage in our lives. However, not many of us have to cope with a very public loss, as happened to the family of Tracey Corbett-Lynch. Her beloved brother, Jason, was brutally murdered by his second wife Molly Martens and her father Tom in North Carolina in 2015.

A judge’s sister is murdered, the assassination of a Nazi leader in Oxford and a baby’s body in the Donegal dunes

Fiction: Livid by Patricia Cornwell Sphere, 368 pages, hardcover €14.99, e-book £10.99

Former RTÉ news reporter Charlie Bird. Photo by Maxwells Dublin

Time and Tide: Charlie Bird tells his distressing story with trademark directness

It was St Patrick’s Day last year and Charlie Bird chose to enjoy it far from the madding crowd. Instead, he hiked the slopes of Sliabh Carraig with his wife Claire and dog Tiger, not far from their home in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

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November 2022

‘I would willingly have watched my family choke and die’ – Gavin McCrea’s startling memoir

Demon Copperhead is a brilliant Dickensian take on America’s 21st century underclass

The one where the actor comes clean: Review of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry’s memoir

Kevin Barry: ‘When I was four I'd recite my favourite Ladybird book to my family most nights’

Wild swimming in Ireland, Dingle literary festival and the wonder of Winterval in Waterford

Detective John Lazarus rises to the challenge in crime writer’s debut novel Black Light

Reviews of The Curtain and The Wall, and Abyss: Revisiting frontiers and catastrophes of the Cold War

The Moderator: Chris Gray reveals the personal cost of trawling toxic Facebook content for €13 an hour

‘Trans people are at risk now more than ever’: Mad Honey authors Jennifer Finney Boylan and Jodi Picoult

From British army soldier to Asgard gun-runner: Erskine Childers’ life was stranger than his fiction

John Grisham’s tale of corruption beside the sea, and the woman who set her sights on Agatha Christie’s husband

You Must Read This: Robin Stevens on A Tale of Time City, a story that defies genre

How Colleen Hoover became the world’s biggest author

Author Fiacre Ryan: ‘Autism is a life sentence for those who committed no crime’

The Madness: Fergal Keane performs an exorcism and a public pledge

‘It’s like my dirty laundry’ – Shane MacGowan goes in search of new crock of gold as he launches art book

The Philosophy of Modern Song: Bob Dylan riffs on old favourites

Rewilding Ireland and Britain: Two journeys into returning ‘zombie’ plantations to lush rainforests

Kellie Harrington’s warmth and humility shine through in this endearing memoir

Backstabbing and betrayal of Britain’s royal court is laid bare

Master craftsman John Grisham brings us his latest tale of crime and punishment

John Banville’s The Singularities feels like a ‘greatest hits’ of his previous novels

Collection of Leland Bardwell’s revealing and well-observed gems

Novelist Ally Bunbury: ‘Jilly Cooper's beautiful, stylish and outrageous characters sparked my imagination’

John Irving’s ‘big novel’ swan song has a familiar air

Johnny Depp on Shane MacGowan: ‘There’s another side to my great friend that doesn’t get as much acknowledgement as it should’

‘We shagged everywhere in the early days — we had a voracious sexual appetite. It probably was helped by the drugs and the drink’

Loss and What It Taught Me About Living: Murder victim’s sister Tracey Corbett Lynch shines a light on grief

A judge’s sister is murdered, the assassination of a Nazi leader in Oxford and a baby’s body in the Donegal dunes

Time and Tide: Charlie Bird tells his distressing story with trademark directness

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