Between 1845 and 1850, more than a million Irish people starved to death. Another half-million were evicted from their homes during the potato blight, and a further million-and-a-half emigrated to America, Britain and Australia. The Naming of Eliza
Irish directors such as Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan are feted and celebrated world-wide. But Brian Desmond Hurst, Ireland’s most prolific film director, has been all but forgotten. A flamboyant bon viveur and
Like journalists, photographers are chroniclers of our time, cataloguing events with images and words, capturing moments that would otherwise be lost in time. We’ve all seen this sort of book before, representing the brand of Irish shamrock and
This novel is essentially about “ending up”, in particular the winter years of the inhabitants of Tuppenny-Hapenny Cottage. The Cottage is a gloomy isolated house occupied by a bunch of oldies thrown together by fate and a lack of options. Bernard –
It is with reluctance that I tell you anything about this story. Ideally I would say “go out, buy it, read it, I think you may very well like it”.
But if I have to tell you anything I’ll tell you how it all begins.
Blue skies, green grass, a picnic
Sasha is disillusioned. Her husband is un-supportive, her children’s lives are full and busy and she is bored and unfulfilled. So when two good friends suggest a trip to Peru she jumps at the chance. Despite her husband’s reservations
In a graveyard at the start of the 1900s, 10-year-olds Livy and Maude meet at their family graves. The Colemans and the Waterhouses (“no relation to the painter”) have never encountered one another before, although their ancestors have lain next to
In Eating with the Angels, Sarah-Kate Lynch has put reviewers in a bit of a pickle. The story, which starts off with New York Times restaurant reviewer Connie Farrell en route to Venice for her second honeymoon – but without her husband, takes
Manchester band Dystopia have just broken into the big time. In the space of six months they have leaped from a broken-down Transit tour of the English midlands to First Class flights en route to their first, already sold-out, gig in Los Vegas. Everything
After such a positive experience with Keri Holmes’ The Bone People, I recently decided that it was time that I read more books by New Zealand authors. I tried to read Katherine Mansfield but short stories aren’t my cup of tea so I turned
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