literature-editor

The video can be found on the website AllHorrorAndBoredom.com. You watch it because you’ve heard what happens, a Tweet, a Facebook post, a thirty second news slot, but in this case that’s not enough, there’s a video, you have to see. There…

I first read Gone with the Wind when I was ten years of age. It was a Christmas present from my mother, which may have seemed bizarre at the time given that I wasn’t allowed stay up to watch Dallas on a Saturday night until some years…

It wouldn’t have happened if Miranda had allowed me to book us into a hotel as I’d wanted. She was twenty-two and still unable to extricate herself from the shadow of her parents’ pious beliefs. In truth, Miranda had flouted those beliefs…

Barry on Goldsmiths Shortlist Irish novelist and short story writer, Kevin Barry, has woken up to good news this morning. His yet-to-be-released novel, Beatlebone, has made the shortlist for the prestigious Goldsmiths Prize. The novel,…

A matter of months ago, Smithsonian Magazine recognized Edith Wharton as one of the most significant Americans of all time, alongside household names such as Abraham Lincoln, Henry Ford, and Oprah. It wasn’t Wharton’s first time standing…

Great literature, it has been said, is that which can be revisited at any point in one’s life, continuing to challenge, offer new perspectives, and enlighten the growing reader. Apart from a certain ramble around the streets of  early…

Rupert never liked his name. Nobody was called that on the black box with the moving pictures which lived in the corner of the room and was always on.  His friends had names like Mags or Dave or Shaz. His mum, called Mary, said it was good…

Recently, I visited a café in south county Dublin and noticed that the walls were decorated with shelves chock-full of books. Piles of them, literally, ten and twelve high in some places. They were all hardbacks of a certain era – 1940s/50s…

Don't be put off by swashbuckling pirate adventures on the high seas. Patrick O'Brian's stories are marvellous character studies and breathtakingly exciting tales. Here's why you should read him. Patrick O'Brian is most famous for his…

I was travelling home for Christmas, dithering, and just made the last train. As usual, I had two choices. I could get off more or less halfway and spend the weekend with my exhaustively predictable father or go much further, a long way…