In this piece in the Irish Times I explore why I wrote another thriller and took Tim Collins into a series. As well as how I think thrillers work. You can read it here.
The Game has been included on two Summer Read lists. In The Irish Times: From summer love to abject terror: The books to read on holidays this year Fiction and history, Irish and international … a feast of reading for summer 2022 Click here to read. Seeking a summer read? Critics and authors pick the best books of 2022 so far. Reading recommendations from Anne Enright, Colm Tóibín, Fintan O’Toole and many more. Click here to read. An Post published their Top 5 Summer Reads with help from Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway and The Game was included along with some stunning new Irish books. Here they are:
Thanks to all those publications who published extracts to The Game. You can read them all below: From the essay ‘Kisses’ in The Irish Times Magazine. From the essay ‘Ekstasis’ in The42.ie and The Journal. From the essay ‘Dark Passions’ (updated) in The Sunday Independent. From the essay ‘Initiations – Longing to Belong’ in The Irish Examiner. From the essay ‘A Place Beyond Words’ on the RTÉ website.
Thanks to all those publications who published extracts to The Game. You can read them all below: From the essay ‘Kisses’ in The Irish Times Magazine. From the essay ‘Ekstasis’ in The42.ie and The Journal. From the essay ‘Dark Passions’ (updated) in The Sunday Independent. From the essay ‘Initiations – Longing to Belong’ in The Irish Examiner. From the essay ‘A Place Beyond Words’ on the RTÉ website.
I was delighted to see an excerpt from my essay ‘Kisses’ from The Game in The Irish Times. Great photos by Daragh McSweeney and lovely illustrations by Fuchsia MacAree. You can read it here.
This review of The Game in The Irish Times by Rory Kiberd blew me away. An extract: “This multi-faceted book ponders how sport teaches us about our own limitations, how winning is foundational on losing, losers being in far greater supply than winners; how defeats and victories are ephemeral. All lessons essential to life. Indeed, sport is like a more concentrated version of life, a microcosmic intensification of its vagaries. So, it’s fitting then that this book transcends its remit. It’s an enquiry into the philosophy of sport with universal application. Even people who’ve never kicked a ball or roared in triumph in the stands will love this. My absorption never faltered.” Full review here.
I was delighted to have a piece published in the Irish Times. In this article I have more questions than answers about bringing out a book in a time of crisis. My Covid-19 anxieties come to the fore. Written in the style of Donald Barthelme’s Concerning the Bodyguard.
June, 2020 I wrote a piece for the Irish Times about writing and publishing Whatever It Takes, and bringing out a novel in the middle of a pandemic. Turns out I have more questions than answers.
This is my last post of 2018 and it’s been some year. My first book The First Sunday in September was published in August by The Mercier Press. I’ve been busy, finishing the editing process for the book and reading and writing as much as I could. Thanks to everyone who supported me, I’m so grateful. Thanks to everyone who read my blog over the year and special thanks to those who took the time to follow, like and comment on the posts. Not to mention those who bought my book and read it. Some who read it were even good enough to contact me with kind words. You have no idea how much that means. Onward and upwards to 2019. I’ve a draft of a crime novel on the go and I’m now working on a book of essays on sport. The next few months will see a lot
