Books

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.

‘I wanted a magazine that celebrated the things I loved’: James Brown in 1997. Photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty

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Former Loaded editor James Brown: ‘Going out with the Irish players was like being a Beatle’

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Depending your perspective, that is. Yes, we’re talking about the 1990s, a decade Eddie Izzard recently condemned as “toxic”.

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.

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

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.

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.

Colm Tóibín is driven by a deep curiosity about people. Photo by Miquel Llop via Getty Images

A Guest at the Feast: Colm Tóibín’s quest for truth is a treat for the reader

Colm Tóibín is of course a distinguished novelist, but he made his first marks on Irish public life as a journalist, and he has several of the attributes no journalist should be without.

You Must Read This: Garth Marenghi on a plague of insect invasion novels

These books are not recommendations. When time travel is perfected (we are almost there), I’ll journey back 50 years and sue each of these authors for literary plagiarism, having ripped off my own insect invasion novels The Stealth-Hive Parallax, Locust Rex (vols 1-10) and Stingpregnators, my cosmic parasitic space wasp quintology, to name but a few of the hundreds of insect novels I’ve penned.

Prolific: Prince in concert in LA in 1985. Photo by Michael Ochs Archives via Getty Images

Dickens & Prince by Nick Hornby: From Hard Times to Sign o’ the Times

In this extended essay, Nick Hornby reveals that he has photos of both Charles Dickens and Prince on his office wall. “They will stay there for as long as I need them, which will be for the rest of my life,” he writes. Among many other attributes, he is most taken by their creative output. “Nobody ever worked harder than these two, or at a higher standard, while connecting with so many people for so long.”

‘Listen to the science’: Greta Thunberg. Photo by Tim Whitby/Getty Images

The Climate Book: Greta Thunberg’s gang give a global warning

Greta Thunberg’s detractors are quick to denigrate her authority on climate, pointing out that she is a mere teenager and one with a tendency to truancy at that. “Listen to the science,” has always been her solid response.

Charlie Bird relaxing listening to music with his dog Tiger at home in Ashford Co. Wicklow. Picture by Gerry Mooney

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Charlie Bird’s memoir reveals his brave battle with illness and covering the biggest stories of our times

Full disclosure; I became a journalist because of Charlie Bird. RTÉ’s former c hief n ews c orrespondent visited my primary school during career s week in fifth class to talk about his work. I still remember the enthusiasm in his face as he began to speak. This sounds like the most interesting job a person could have, I thought. There never seemed an obvious link between that warm, excited man in my classroom, and the stern, almost gruff persona appearing on our TVs for years.

American master George Saunders. Photo: Zach Krahmer

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George Saunders’s Liberation Day is a strange beauty of schlock, awe and Orwellian chills

Liberation Day is the new collection of nine stories from the American master George Saunders. His novel Lincoln in the Bardo won the 2017 Booker Prize, and his stories appear regularly in The New Yorker.

Richard Osman has three novels under his belt. Photo: Conor O'Leary

The best new cosy crime fiction for every armchair detective

Richard Osman used to be known as that nice bloke off the telly. Now, with three novels in the record-breaking Thursday Murder Club series under his belt, he’s quite simply a literary phenomenon. The series, which falls neatly into the ‘cosy’ end of the crime fiction spectrum, is about a group of retirees who solve murders together. The third instalment, The Bullet That Missed, published last month by Penguin, sold 127,743 copies in its first week on sale .

Felicity Hayes McCoy. Picture by Paul Sherwood

Storyteller Felicity Hayes-McCoy: ‘I realised that terrible things can happen if people don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them’

Felicity Hayes-McCoy was born in Dublin. She studied Irish, English and history at UCD before moving to England in the 1970s to train as an actress. Her work as a writer ranges from TV and radio drama and documentary, to screenplays, music theatre, memoir and children’s books. Her USA Today best selling Finfarran novels are widely read on both sides of the Atlantic, and in Australia, and have been translated into six languages. She and her opera director husband, Wilf Judd, live in the west Kerry Gaeltacht and in Bermondsey, London. Her standalone novel The Keepsake Quilters, has just been published by Hachette Books Ireland.

'Closing In' is a cat and mouse psychological thriller

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ED Thompson’s Christmas-set thriller is the ideal stocking filler

Irish author ED Thompson was a journalist before turning to fiction, so it’s not surprising that her second novel – Closing In – centres on Caroline, a reporter who has worked for her local newspaper for over 30 years. She loves her job covering local news, the interesting court cases and the range of political ups and downs,

Bono writes with searing honesty in 'Surrender'.

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From Boy to Bono – memoir reveals the making of the artist and the man

On March 14, 2002, six months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, George W Bush is travelling in a bullet-proof car in Washington as the crowds cheer him on. Sitting beside him, Bono tells the president: “You’re pretty popular around here.”

The Rodfather by Roddy Collins: bluff, bravado and a perfect match

‘Larger than life’ doesn’t do him justice. ‘Been there, done that’ comes up similarly short. Roddy Collins is one of those heroes who seems to have stepped off the pages of comic fiction and straight into our everyday. It’s ‘you couldn’t make it up’ that hits the nail on the head.

Sophie White, author of Where I End. Photo by Tristan Hutchinson

You Must Read This: Sophie White on American Wife, an addictive read based on Laura Bush

Every now and then I go through a reading slump — a dismal stretch of time when nothing I pick up seems to grab me. After a few false starts, I’ll inevitably start pestering friends on WhatsApp: “I’m in a reading slump, I need a solid banger NOW!”

An illustration from Fox & Son Tailers by Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)

Children’s books: a feast of sweet and spooky stories for autumn

Young readers are in for a thrill this autumn with a bewitching array of books for all ages. There are vibrant picture books for the smallest story lovers, lots of beautifully crafted novels for older readers to get their teeth into, and spooky stories to suit the Halloween season. Happy reading!

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November 2022

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’

Former Loaded editor James Brown: ‘Going out with the Irish players was like being a Beatle’

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

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

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

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

A Guest at the Feast: Colm Tóibín’s quest for truth is a treat for the reader

You Must Read This: Garth Marenghi on a plague of insect invasion novels

Dickens & Prince by Nick Hornby: From Hard Times to Sign o’ the Times

The Climate Book: Greta Thunberg’s gang give a global warning

October 2022

Charlie Bird’s memoir reveals his brave battle with illness and covering the biggest stories of our times

George Saunders’s Liberation Day is a strange beauty of schlock, awe and Orwellian chills

The best new cosy crime fiction for every armchair detective

Storyteller Felicity Hayes-McCoy: ‘I realised that terrible things can happen if people don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them’

ED Thompson’s Christmas-set thriller is the ideal stocking filler

From Boy to Bono – memoir reveals the making of the artist and the man

The Rodfather by Roddy Collins: bluff, bravado and a perfect match

You Must Read This: Sophie White on American Wife, an addictive read based on Laura Bush

Children’s books: a feast of sweet and spooky stories for autumn

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