City of Books

The Raptures is Jan Carson's most autobiographical novel, dealing with a child raised in an evangelical Christian community in 1990s Northern Ireland – which mirrors her own background. In her book, a class of children from the same village fall prey to a mysterious and deadly epidemic. Only one pupil seems to be avoiding the effects of the disease: Hannah, a girl from a born-again Christian background. “There is a lot of me in this book and for that reason it was both very easy to write because I know this world very well, there wasn't a lot of research to do, but quite difficult to write – to go to the hard places,” Jan tells podcast host Martina Devlin. “It's very easy to pastiche this world. It's much more difficult to have a nuanced look at it.” She was sheltered from the Troubles, but in hindsight wishes she'd known more about what was happening around her. In her books, Jan gives readers a strong sense of the Ulster Protestant experience, especially for those from the ‘born again' community. “I grew up absolutely immersed in the King James Bible,” she says. “That is not a bad literary document to be immersed in as a writer. It's got everything from poetry and prophecy to magical realism and beautiful, beautiful language. I'm very glad for those things.” More here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/437833/the-raptures-by-carson-jan/9780857525758

“I really don't like the fact that sometimes I'm referred to as kind of a controversial novelist because I don't feel that I am,” says John Boyne, whose novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold 11 million copies and mounting, and has been reimagined as a film, play, ballet and opera. The sequel – All The Broken Places – imagines life after the Holocaust for some of the characters in the 2006 novel, which saw life in a concentration camp through the eyes of two small boys.  “I'm not controversial as a person,” he says. “I'm not a provocateur at all as a person. And I certainly don't mean to come across that way either in the books that I write or in my interviews. “I'm not immune to the fact people have criticised The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas in more recent years – not for the first 14 or so years of its publication. And I'm not immune to the fact that there's a vocal amount of people who feel I should never be writing a book like All The Broken Places. But I also feel what can we do as writers but write the book that feels right to us at the time?" He says The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has become “almost a touchstone” for people who feel negativity towards him. But with any writing project, he feels the fear and does it anyway. All The Broken Places is published by Penguin Random House. More here https://johnboyne.com/book/all-the-broken-places/

Andrew Meehan is nailing his colours to the mast. He writes love stories, he says – although it took him until his third and most recent novel to recognise it. It was only as he was working on his latest novel, Instant Fires, that realisation dawned. “Halfway through I discovered, ‘Andrew, you write love stories. OK, it took you a while to cop on to the fact it's what you do'.” Looking back, he understands that all three of his novels are love stories. “You write what you want to read,” concludes Andrew. “We all get put in boxes and some of us invite ourselves into certain boxes and I'm now embracing the fact that I'm a writer of love stories.“ The novel is about two strangers who meet over the course of a week in Heidelberg, Germany, and feel an instant attraction – despite the woman, Ute, being convinced love is not for her. Their courtship is  “diffident, gentle, awkward” and is characterised as a prelude to love by Andrew's publisher.  Instant Fires by Andrew Meehan is published by New Island. More here:  https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/instant-fires

One of history's most famous royal love affairs is threaded through Emily Hourican's latest novel. The backdrop to The Other Guinness Girl is the 1936 abdication crisis, when the newly-crowned King Edward VIII surrendered this throne to marry his twice-divorced American lover, Wallis Simpson. “What was it about her that so compelled the Prince of Wales? Why was he determined to give up everything for her?” asks Emily. The Other Guinness Girl: A Question of Honour by Emily Hourican is published by Hachette Books Irelandhttps://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/emily-hourican/the-other-guinness-girl-a-question-of-honor/9781399708012/

Happily ever afters don't have to involve a fairy tale wedding followed by staying together for the sake of the children, come what may, says début author Cristín Leach. The art critic speaks candidly about her marriage breakdown in her memoir, Negative Space. A text message pinging onto her phone marked the beginning of the end for her relationship. Cristin also reflects on life and her relarionship to art and writing, and says: “I don't feel that there's any one reading for a work of art. Everyone who encounters music, poetry, books, paintings, films brings themselves to it. There's something shared when we all encounter it.” Negative Space by Cristín Leach is published by Merrion Press. More here: https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/negative-space/

“Fiction sometimes unearths truths – and truths we're not even aware of knowing,” says novelist Catherine Dunne. She's talking about her novel, A Name For Himself, and Lia Mills's novel Another Alice, reissued in new editions as part of the Arlen House Classic Literature. Both were published originally in the 1990s, but their themes of coercive control and an abused childhood remain relevant today. More info: http://arlenhouse.ie

As Somerville and Ross they were a dynamic literary partnership. When Ross died, Edith Somerville convinced herself they could continue to collaborate on books - by communicating beyond the grave through spiritualism. Martina Devlin talks about her novel Edith, set in 1921-22 against a backdrop of civil unrest leading to Irish independence. It follows Edith's attempts to save both home – Drishane House – and literary career. She is interviewed by fellow novelist Nuala O'Connor. Edith: A Novel by Martina Devlin is published by The Lilliput Press. More here: https://www.lilliputpress.ie/product/edith-by-martina-devlin

Sara Baume is unafraid to use her own life in her writing, while insisting on its status as fiction. She does it again in her new book Seven Steeples, a gentle and thought-provoking novel spanning seven years. It's about a couple and their two rescue dogs who drop off the radar and live a quiet life doing as little harm to the planet as possible. “Everything I write is always an extremity of my actual existence. It's sort of like a smudged out version of us, I suppose,” says Sara, who moved to the countryside 11 years ago and currently lives with her partner in West Cork. She also works as a visual artist and describes the deep sense of satisfaction she gains from working with her hands, whether on patchwork flags or wooden birds or tiny ships. Seven Steeples by Sara Baume is published by Tramp Press https://tramppress.com/product/seven-steeples/

If you think you're obsessed with being online, you should meet the characters in début author Catherine Prasifka's novel None of This Is Serious. Her book deals with the preoccupations of Gen Z, coming of age right now. Despite their shiny new lives, they fear a lifetime of being locked out of home ownership, and worry about whether the planet can survive. Above all, they think long periods interacting with social media platforms is time well-spent. “We've only had the internet for thirty years and we've only had the social internet for half of that time," says Catherine. "And we're not good at using it, and we don't know how it works, and there's no possible way to predict how it's affecting people who've grown up with it – this idea that you can be contactable at any time, and you can get insights into your friends' lives that they're not directly telling you.” None of This Is Serious by Catherine Prasifka is published by Canongate For more on the novel: https://canongate.co.uk/books/3939-none-of-this-is-serious/

“The past is never dead. It's not even past,” said William Faulkner – and the past is ever-present, but with a twist, in Rosemary Jenkinson's short story collection Marching Season. The Belfast playwright and short story writer tackles rioting, bonfires to mark the Twelfth of July, TED talks, and one-night-stands and threesomes in her no-holds-barred stories. Here, Rosemary also reflects on the numbing effect of cancel culture and discusses her own experience. Marching Season is published by Arlen House

Everyone is talking about Edel Coffey's debut novel which deals with Forgotten Baby Syndrome, every exhausted-by-the-juggle parent's nightmare. Breaking Point tells of a high-powered career woman who accidentally leaves her baby in the car on a boiling hot day – with tragic consequences. Amid the guilt and grief, she is put on trial for manslaughter. Inspired by a true story. For more on Breaking Point: https://vip7.hachette.co.uk/?s=breaking+point+edel+coffey

“Birds sing because they have to – because they must,” says the man who knows more than most about the subject, Professor David Rothenberg, an American musician, philosopher and writer whose books include Why Birds Sing, Nightingales in Berlin and Bug Music.  “Birdsong is the real classic music, this is oldest music we know. It's been around so much longer than the human species – it's stood the test of time,” he says. “It's in their very nature to need to sing, just like humans need to make music – we just have to do it. It's part of the very essence of being a bird, of being a human, a humpbacked whale, a cricket or a cicada.” Professor Rothenberg, distinguished professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, plays music live on location with creatures large and small, from insects in ponds to whales in the middle of the ocean. His latest book is The Possibility of Reddish Green, about the philosopher Wittgenstein. More information: www.davidrothenberg.net

“I had to create her out of nothing,” says JR Thorp of her debut novel Learwife, which explores the untold story of King Lear's wife, written out of literary history. The idea first occurred to Thorp at the age of eleven when she read Agatha Christie's The Moving Finger. “There's a girl in that with a complicated relationship with her parents who says as an offhand line, ‘I wonder why Goneril and Regan were like that? What it was like for them growing up?' It's just a thought that's mentioned and then discarded but it stayed with me.” It started her thinking about family dynamics, and she read and re-read Shakespeare's tragedy to see what had created those highly-competitive characters. She found only two fleeting references to Lear's unnamed wife in the entire play. “Something about her absence was creating this toxicity,” said Thorp.  More: https://canongate.co.uk/books/3650-learwife/

Famously, King Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. That's what everyone knows about the Greek myth. But Carlo Gébler sets out to humanise the story. He talks about his novel I Antigone set in the seventh century BC, and why Antigone is his narrator: because she had "skin in the game" as both daughter and sister to Oedipus. He says the story remains compelling thousands of years later because it is a family tragedy. For more on Carlo Gébler's novel: https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/i-antigone Presented and produced by Martina Devlin

A chance meeting with a professor of circus fired children's writer Sarah Webb's imagination and led to her latest novel. Sarah learned how Ireland had the second circus in the world in the late 1700s, with stunt riding, clowns, acrobats - and bee charming, or riding with a necklace of live bees. Her novel, The Little Bee Charmer of Henrietta Street (for eight to 12-year-olds), was the result. It blends tenement life in 1911 Dublin with circus life.  Presented and produced by Martina Devlin More on the book here: https://obrien.ie/the-little-bee-charmer-of-henrietta-street

Michael Collins is the most famous casualty of the Irish Civil War but there is a lot of “what-if-ery”about him, says Ireland's best-known historian. “Some “vey fanciful” claims are about the kind of leader he would have become if he had survived, according to Diarmaid Ferriter. He says: “We have to be careful of investing too much in the idea of the lost leader because Collins shared many of the limitations and the prejudices, as well as the considerable abilities, of his generation.” Professor Ferriter notes that Michael Collins was “a serious celebrity” at the time of his death in 1922. He dismisses conspiracy theories about his shooting at Béal na Bláth in Co Cork as “far-fetched”. Between Two Hells: The Irish Civil War by Diarmaid Ferriter is published by Profile Books. More here: https://profilebooks.com/work/between-two-hells/ Podcast presented and produced by Martina Devlin

Playwright Rosaleen McDonagh talks about her activism, disability campaigning, journey through adult education which led to a Phd, and weaving together elements of Traveller culture and settled culture, forging an identity from them. She tells her powerful story in a collection of essays, Unsettled, dedicated to her family. And she speaks with pride about the current generation of articulate, engaged, ambitious Travellers. Produced and presented by Martina Devlin For more on Unsettled: https://skeinpress.com/product/unsettled/

A delicate, rare bloom which is “like the blood diamonds of the flower world” and fetches millions of euro is the subject of poet Paul Perry's first solo novel. The Garden centres on an orchid farm in Florida, where the owner is desperate to revive his fortunes by growing the highly-prized ghost orchid. But to find one of the orchids, he needs the help of the local Seminole tribe living on a nearby reservation. Paul, who worked on an orchid farm in Florida for three years in the 1990s, says: “An underbelly and black economy has grown up, so you have poachers and a whole other economy parallel to the legitimate ones.” More about The Garden here: https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/the-garden

Violet Gibson, an Irishwoman who attempted to shoot Italy's fascist leader Mussolini, is one among a host of fascinating characters in Evelyn Conlon's new short story collection, Moving About The Place. In 1926, she fired on ‘Il Duce' as he walked among the crowd in a piazza in Rome. Her bullet skimmed his nose. The crowd attacked the would-be assassin, but the police intervened. Violet was committed to an asylum and never released –  the same institution where Lucia Joyce spent more than thirty years. “Difficult women were locked up for all sorts of reasons,” says Evelyn. More here on Moving About The Place by Blackstaff: https://blackstaffpress.com/moving-about-the-place-9781780733104

From social change to gender change - all bases are covered in this wide-ranging conversation with one of Ireland's most sparkling writers. Lisa McInerney's The Glorious Heresies trilogy is a memorable take on a seamy slice of life. The latest and third novel is its riotous conclusion, The Rules of Revelation. More here on her novel: https://www.lisamcinerney.com  

A new collection of essays which reflect on the perils and compulsions of authorship, the vagaries of success and failure - and what counts as either. Twenty-one contributors tell it like it really was. All of them came of age when equality legislation was being enacted in Ireland – often due to their activism. Look! It's A Woman Writer is edited by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne and published by Arlen House. More information here: http://arlenhouse.blogspot.com Produced and presented by Martina Devlin

At the age of 20, three months after meeting James Joyce, Nora Barnacle left everything she knew behind to share the adventure of a lifetime with him. She was a maid in a Dublin hotel when they met, and he was a clever and ambitious young man who wanted to be a writer. In 1904, they shipped out for mainland Europe, at times living a hand-to-mouth existence, at other times eating in the best restaurants. But through it all, Nora stuck by Joyce, who made her his muse and immortalised her as Molly Bloom in Ulysses. Nuala O’Connor, who brings Nora vividly to life in her novel of the same name, discusses the famous literary couple. Nora: A Love Story of Nora Barnacle and James Joyce by Nuala O’Connor is published by New Island: https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/nora Produced and presented by Martina Devlin

“One of the brilliant things about books is that you can buy a book by the very best writers and if it still costs a tenner – it doesn’t cost any more than bad writing,” says Rónán Hession. He's author of the 2021 One Dublin One Book choice Leonard and Hungry Paul. It's a quirky, thoughtful novel which makes the case for kindness - and he says he's been on the receiving end of this quality throughout his life. Rónán notes: “If you want to buy very good quality clothes they cost more, or live in a very well designed house, or go to a very fancy restaurant, there’s a price difference. “But in books you can buy the greatest literature in the world for the same cost as a more commercial or more disposable product. So there’s no price difference, there’s no barrier.” More about the novel: https://bluemoosebooks.com/books/leonard-and-hungry-paul More about One Dublin One Book: http://www.onedublinonebook.ie

John Banville, who has killed off his own Benjamin Black pen name, is disturbed by explicit depictions of violence in popular culture. He warns that people are constantly bombarded with graphic images. “There has to be more violence, more shock, more terror,” says the Booker Prize-winner, wondering where it will all end. “If I were a young woman now I’d be out protesting about these things. It can’t be good for young men to be watching them." His latest novel Snow, published by Faber and Faber, is set in an Irish Big House in the 1950s and opens with the corpse of a priest found in the library. More on Snow here: https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571362677-snow.html City of Books producer and presenter: Martina Devlin Theme tune composer: Daragh Dukes

Oscar-winning filmmaker Neil Jordan runs parallel careers as a director and novelist, and his latest book is his most cinematic yet. It’s an historical novel, The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small, about the true-life friendship between aristocrat turned revolutionary Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the runaway American slave who saved his life. “I don’t know how I would have lived if I didn’t make movies and I also don’t know how I would have lived if I didn’t write books,” says Neil. Films feel like short stories to him, and he never stops writing – short stories, novels and film scripts. He says: “When I started directing movies I felt I was in a world of Neanderthals. I felt I had suddenly strayed into this world of these blundering dinosaurs. “And I thought, what am I doing here, this strange little Irish guy? And they used to treat me that way as well, they’d almost treat you with amused contempt. It was kind of weird.” The Ballad of Lord Edward and Citizen Small by Neil Jordan is published by Lilliput Press. More here: https://www.lilliputpress.ie/product/the-ballad-of-lord-edward-and-citizen-small Presented and produced by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes

“As someone prone to get lost in the darker currents of my own head I’ve found it healthier to get lost in a book,” says Danielle McLaughlin. She speaks candidly about feelings of anxiety and how immersing herself in reading and writing is a positive way to deal with them. Danielle switched from law – where she had her own successful legal practice – to fiction after falling ill. As she recovered, she started writing. It led to the acclaimed short story collection Dinosaurs on Other Planets, and now her debut novel The Art of Falling, published by John Murray, which deals with art and infidelity. https://www.johnmurraypress.co.uk/titles/danielle-mclaughlin/the-art-of-falling/9781473613683/

“The number 63 has come up for me time and time again in very strange ways,” says writer Louise O’Neill. “I have put it in each of my books." One of her favourite reads is Rachel’s Holiday by Marian Keyes, which Louise read in St John o’ Gods while suffering from anorexia: “It was such an important book for me in terms of understanding my behaviour, in particular the addictive element." Her latest novel, for which she won the crime fiction trophy at the 2020 Irish Book Awards, is After the Silence published by Quercus. More information here: https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/landing-page/after-the-silence/ Produced and presented by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes

Poet Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin talks about a time when books were banned in Ireland. And how her mother, distinguished children's writer Eilís Dillon, had a cupboard of them which she handed out to the family. “It was, of course, nonsensical that they were banned," says Eiléan. “You had to go out and get them quickly when they were first published." Eiléan was recently named winner of China’s prestigious 1573 International Poetry Award. Produced and presented by Martina Devlin. Music by Daragh Dukes. Eiléan's Collected Poems spanning more than half a century available from the Gallery Press website here: https://www.gallerypress.com/authors/m-to-n/eilean-ni-chuilleanain/

“I don’t know if Ireland is the same any more,” says Booker Prize winner and former Laureate for Irish Fiction Anne Enright. Previously hidden things have become “knowable, newly sayable” in the last 30 years and this has contributed to an altered Ireland. “That process by which things become known has been one of the great engines of my own writing over the last three decades” and has been “creatively fruitful,” says Anne, whose latest novel is Actress. Among other themes, the book deals with Hollywood’s casting couch regime and chimes with the Me Too movement. City of Books is funded by the Arts Council and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the Museum of Literature Ireland, MOLI. Produced and presented by Martina Devlin. Music by Daragh Dukes. For more on Actress: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/1009089/anne-enright.html

Louis de Bernières may be known worldwide as the author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - but at nineteen, teaching in Colombia, he was known for something else. Dancing like a chicken. He talks to City of Books about how "we raised a lot of dust, raised a lot of fun" during that life-changing period in South America. It taught him to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who influenced his work. For more on his latest novel, The Autumn of the Ace: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117235/the-autumn-of-the-ace/9781787301337.html City of Books is produced and presented by Martina Devlin.

In her first podcast interview since winning the An Post Irish Book of the Year award for 2020, Doireann Ní Ghríofa describes how she shares her life with a famous 18th century widow – Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill. When she began the literary detective work that resulted in A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann began to feel a strong sense of Eibhlín Dubh’s presence. Her book is an original and compelling work which pays tribute to a passionate love affair that ended in tragedy. It traces the life of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, an Irish noblewoman and poet – composer of Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire or The Lament For Art O’Leary, which she recited over her husband’s dead body. Composed in Irish and translated later into English, it outlines how she eloped with a dashing cavalryman, murdered in 1773 by a tyrannical landowner. Doireann tells the City of Books podcast that she was quite a lonesome child and young mother but since becoming immersed in the story “I haven’t felt so lonesome – I have the sense that she’s with me”. More information: https://tramppress.com/product/a-ghost-in-the-throat-by-doireann-ni-ghriofa/

Writer Eoin McNamee blurs fact and fiction to produce art, whether exploring the activities of secret intelligence agencies or speculating on why Princess Diana died in a high speed car accident. His 17 novels are gritty and poetic – beautifully written noir – and have earned him a Booker nomination. But they sometimes attract criticism for being near the knuckle, although he sees that as their function, he tells podcast host Martina Devlin. He also writes episodes for Valhalla, the Vikings spinoff for Netflix. His most recent novel, The Vogue, is set in Northern Ireland where a corpse is dug up, and other secrets uncovered along with it. “Writing should be transgressive," he says. The Vogue is published by Faber. More info here: https://www.faber.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/index/order/date_of_publication/dir/desc/q/Eoin+McNamee/ City of Books is funded by the Arts Council and supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and the Museum of Literature Ireland

Writer Emma Donoghue tells City of Books how she wrote an Oscar-nominated script working with director Lenny Abrahamson on Room. She also talks about her latest novel The Pull of the Stars set during the 1918 flu pandemic – with parallels that sound a familiar note today. For more on Emma’s book: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/emma-donoghue/the-pull-of-the-stars/9781529046151 City of Books is hosted by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes Supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature and MOLI The Museum of Literature Ireland

Ireland's man in Washington, Ambassador Daniel Mulhall, talks us through the rhyme and reason of poetry - and how literature can act as a cultural bridge. He practises what he preaches by tweeting daily poems. Also in this episode, Professor Chris Morash of Trinity College Dublin discusses who's in the shakeup for a valued and valuable award: the Dublin International Literature Prize worth €100,000. Produced and presented by Martina Devlin. Music by Daragh Dukes

Lemn Sissay shoots from the hip and speaks from the heart in this interview about mother and baby homes, the Black Lives Matter campaign and his experience in the British care system.   “My name was changed, I was treated as property,” the poet and playwright Lemn tells City of Books presenter Martina Devlin. Lemn was born in a mother and baby home in England to an Ethiopian mother, fostered out and returned to care at the age of 12 - as he tells in his powerful memoir My Name Is Why. But poetry gave him a sense of belonging in a world he couldn't fathom. More info: www.lemnsissay.com

Richard Ford is listing his failures. He wanted to be a lawyer in the US Marines. That didn’t work out. He wanted to be "a lawyer, period”. That didn’t work out. He became a writer – that certainly counts as a success for the Pulitzer Prize winner. Even so, between novels and short story collections he sometimes thought he was through with fiction and imagined doing other jobs. But he kept going, he tells Martina Devlin in the City of Books podcast for Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. And that’s been the case for half a century. Although when he’s between books, he claims to “flounce” around finding reasons not to work. Sorry For Your Trouble is his latest book, a short story collection published by Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sorry-for-your-trouble-9781526620026/ Produced+presented by Martina Devlin with music by Daragh Dukes

Doyenne of domestic noir Liz Nugent’s work has an army of fans including Graham Norton, who describes her latest hit Our Little Cruelties as part rollercoaster, part maze. Here, Liz talks about coping with pain stemming from a childhood brain haemorrhage, and overcoming challenges large and small – such as typing all her work one-handed: “Shakespeare wrote all his plays one-handed with a feather,” she says. She also reveals the identity of her favourite fictional antihero (clue: he’s sexy but mean). Produced and presented by Martina Devlin with music by Daragh Dukes. More about Liz’s books here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/77895/liz-nugent.html

Writer Colum McCann talks about his hope that his book, Apeirogon, may contribute to peace. It fictionalises the true story of two fathers, an Israeli and a Palestinian, who each lose a child in the conflict. Elsewhere in the interview, Colum says he can’t write poetry but is drawn to it, and talks about writers he has known including Frank McCourt and Benedict Kiely. He also reads from his novel. Produced and presented by author and journalist Martina Devlin. Music by Daragh Dukes. :: Apeirogon is published by Bloomsbury https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/apeirogon-9781526607874/

The Maamtrasna murders were sparked by a blood feud in a remote part of 19th century Ireland. A family of five was killed by neighbours - but the trial proved to be just as notorious as the murders. It was held in English and some of the defendants, who were from Connemara, could not speak the language. Professor Margaret Kelleher of University College Dublin and Mr Justice Peter Kelly, president of Ireland's High Court, discuss the case and political context in Dublin's historic Green Street courthouse, scene of the trial. Presented and produced by author and journalist Martina Devlin For more on Margaret Kelleher’s book The Maamtrasna Murders: Language, Life and Death in Nineteenth-Century Ireland follow the link: https://www.ucdpress.ie/display.asp?isbn=9781910820421&

Three Fs have been a consistent part of international bestseller Joanna Trollope's life: Fiction, family and feminism. She explains why here. The international bestseller says, “There will always be women who want to stay at home in the kitchen and make jam tarts with the three-year-old, and there will always be women who want to rule the world.” Which kind is she? And why does Jane Austen inspire her? This episode also includes a tribute to poet extraordinaire Eavan Boland from writer Colum McCann. For more on Joanna Trollope’s latest novel Mum & Dad follow the link https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/joanna-trollope/mum-dad/9781529003383 For more on Joanna Trollope follow the link https://www.joannatrollope.com Presented and Produced by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes

Marita Conlon-McKenna is the much-loved author of many books for children and adults. They include her children's classic about Ireland's Great Famine, Under The Hawthorn Tree. She talks here about the magic of storytelling, why famine stories continue to grip us and the powerful use of the child's voice in Tatty - the 2020 Dublin One City One Book choice. For more about Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/tatty/ For more about Marita Conlon-McKenna and her fiction including her latest novel The Hungry Road https://maritaconlonmckenna.com/ Produced and presented by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes

RTÉ Arts and Media Correspondent Sinéad Crowley, also a crime novelist, talks about books, her love of running, her passion for ghost stories and 'Tatty' - the 2020 Dublin One City One Book choice. Sinéad is author of three novels in the Detective Sergeant Claire Boyle series, all of them shortlisted in the crime category at the Irish Book Awards: Can Anybody Help Me?, Are You Watching Me? and One Bad Turn. About Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey: https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/tatty About Sinéad Crowley and her fiction: https://www.rte.ie/culture/2017/0529/878783-one-bad-turn-by-sinead-crowley-read-an-exclusive-extract/ Produced and presented by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes

Writer Carlo Gébler, son of Edna O'Brien, talks about One City One Book choices in the second of four weekly City of Books podcast extras. On his mother's classic trilogy, The Country Girls, he says it stands the test of time because it “talks about the truth of human experience”. His experience as a prison teacher has been life-enhancing: “Prison has been my university. It has taught me more than I have learned anywhere else.” And he draws parallels between some of his own work and Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey, Dublin's 2020 One City One Book choice.  Produced and presented by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes For more on Tatty follow this link http://www.dublinonecityonebook.ie/news/tatty-by-christine-dwyer-hickey-is-2020-dublin-one-city-one-book-choice/ For more on Carlo Gébler follow this link https://www.newisland.ie/carlo-gebler  

Writer and editor Sinéad Gleeson talks Tatty – and more – in the first of four City of Books podcast extras. Weekly to coincide with Dublin’s One City One Book programme featuring the novel by Christine Dwyer Hickey. Presented and produced by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes For more on Tatty follow this link https://www.newisland.ie/fiction/tatty For more on Sinéad Gleeson follow this link http://www.sineadgleeson.com

We snoop along Paschal Donohoe’s bookshelves, in episode three. And we also hear from Christine Dwyer Hickey, author of Tatty – Dublin’s One City One Book choice for 2020 –about how alcoholism shapes an entire family For more information on Tatty by Christine Dwyer Hickey, follow this link. ----- A monthly podcast supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature in association with the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI). ----- Presented & Produced by Martina Devlin Music by Daragh Dukes

In this episode, the international bestseller talks about everything from why she believes in supporting other women, to why bulimia is possibly the cruellest addiction. Marian also talks about her latest novel Grown Ups. ----- A monthly podcast supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature in association with the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI). ----- Presented & Edited by Martina Devlin Produced by Steve Byrne Music by Daragh Dukes

In this episode, artist Robert Ballagh talks about why Samuel Beckett thought he kept him waiting for breakfast, how his postage stamp design infuriated Northern Irish political leader the Rev Ian Paisley, befriending Nobel scientist James Watson and getting on the wrong side of Britain’s Prince Philip. He also discusses his autobiography A Reluctant Memoir, published by Head of Zeus Later in the episode, writer Mary Costello takes a tour of the iconic James Joyce Tower in Dublin where Joyce set the opening chapter of his masterpiece Ulysses. During her walkabout in the 200-year-old building, she explains why she is drawn back again and again to Joyce’s work and why her latest novel The River Capture is inspired by him. ----- A monthly podcast supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature in association with the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI). ----- Presented & Edited by Martina Devlin Produced by Steve Byrne Music by Daragh Dukes  

Martina Devlin talks books with people who believe stories matter. And that you can never have too many books.  A monthly podcast supported by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature in association with the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI).   Subscribe now!