Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle is Books Editor

A scene from the 2018 animated short An Béal Bocht – The Poor Mouth, based on Flann O’Brien’s 1941 satirical novel (see question 10)
The Books Quiz: A world map as seen from Corkadoragha shows which US cities?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Kate O’Brien Award; Niamh Mulvey book deal; Eason Must Reads and book offer

A preview of Saturday’s books pages

Edna O’Brien, in Paris in Novembre 2019, where she received a special Prix Femina for her novel Girl. Photograph: Sophie Bassouls/Sygma via Getty Images
Edna O’Brien honoured with France’s highest cultural distinction

90-year-old author joins Bono and Heaney as Commandeur of Ordre des Arts et Lettres

Eason book offer; Saturday’s pages; Walter Scott and Jean Monnet Prizes; Cairde Word

A round-up of the latest literary news

Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole in the Thames Television series
The Books Quiz: What is Rumpole’s favourite poetry book?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Greg Delanty. Photograph: Brian MacDonald
Poem of the week: One More Time

A new poem by Greg Delanty

Irish author Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick has been named on this year’s CILIP Carnegie Medal longlist for On Midnight Beach (Faber)
Irish children’s authors and bookshops up for prizes; Saturday’s books pages preview

A round-up of the latest literary news

The Books Quiz: Which Irish writer was once lead singer with Toasted Heretic?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Conor O’Callaghan: ‘When I came back to Ireland in the late noughties, after the financial crash, I always felt like Oisín. All the shops closed down, and nobody around.’ Photograph: Niall Hartnett
‘There’s an Ireland that rarely gets into books: the lower-middle class who play golf and bridge’

In a powerful new novel, Conor O’Callaghan follows an emigrant’s road trip with his daughter

Johnny Rogan in Dublin in 2011. Photograph: Alan Betson
Johnny Rogan, leading music biographer, dies, aged 67

London Irish writer was famous for his attention to detail and clash with Morrissey

Liz Nugent: “Thank you so much, UCD L&H for such an honour. Imagine, James Joyce and me, hanging out.”
Liz Nugent receives UCD’s Literary and Historical Society James Joyce award

Saturday’s books pages; Literature Ireland podcasts; RoC longlist; BND Magazine; Between The Red Lines

The shortlisted books
Three Irish writers on £30,000 Rathbones Folio Prize shortlist

Winner will be announced on March 24th

Ralph Fiennes in The Dig
The Books Quiz: Who wrote The Dig, now adapted for Netflix?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

A production photograph from Rockaby by Samuel Beckett, par tof Trinity College Dublin’s latest acquisition
A round-up of the latest literary news and preview of Saturday’s books pages

Eason book offer; TCD Beckett archive; Listowel deadline; HarperCollins appointment

Photograph: Patrick Semansky/AFP/Getty
The Books Quiz: Who is the poet laureate who read at Joe Biden’s inauguration?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Author Danielle McLaughlin at home near Donoughmore, Co Cork. Photograph: Michael Mac Sweeney/Provision
Danielle McLaughlin: ‘I’m anxious and an introvert. That can be helpful when making fiction’

Cork writer on her heralded debut novel, self-doubt and writing with autism

Monique Roffey, winner of the 2020 Costa Book of the Year for her novel, The Mermaid of Black Conch. Photograph: Ian Gavan/Getty Images
Monique Roffey wins £30,000 Costa Book of the Year Award

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and a roundup of the latest literary news

Cover stars: indie publishers recommend their books to watch out for in 2021
A host of books to watch out for in 2021 – all from independent publishers

From an Irish coastal atlas to unsettling tales, civil war and Neil Jordan’s runaway slave

Denis McIntyre, director of Bram Stoker’s Castle Dracula museum and cinema in Clontarf, Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
The Books Quiz: What is Bram Stoker’s Dracula short story called?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Naoise Dolan and Caoilinn Hughes on Dylan Thomas Prize longlist

A roundup of the latest literary news and preview of Saturday’s books pages

Sally Rooney: The Normal People author’s third novel is due out in September
The Books Quiz: What is the name of Sally Rooney’s new novel?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Laura-Blaise McDowell: on Costa story shortlist
Irish writer on Costa short story shortlist; Irish Times Eason offer: The Hungry Road

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and a roundup of the latest literary news

Sally Rooney: the author's new novel will be published by Faber & Faber on September 7th. Photograph: Kalpesh Lathigra
New Sally Rooney novel announced for September

Beautiful World, Where Are You follows Normal People and Conversations with Friends

The Books Quiz: Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent is set in which county?

The weekly challenge: 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

From Old Ireland in Colour: c.1946, Feothanach, Co. Kerry; Members of the O’Sullivan, Griffin and Kavanagh families; Photographer: Caoimhín Ó Danachair; Source: National Folklore Collection
John Delaney exposé top Irish 2020 title as Old Ireland in Colour makes €1m sales

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is overall bestseller

The late Eavan Boland in Dublin in 2018. Photograph: Barry Cronin
Eavan Boland wins posthumous Costa Poetry Award

Trinidadian authors Ingrid Persaud and Monique Roffey win novel awards

Some of the authors to look forward to in 2021: Ed O'Loughlin, Sinéad O’Connor, Lisa McInerney, Danielle McLaughlin, Neil Jordan, Claire Keegan, Conor O’Callaghan and Keith Ridgway
Books to look out for in 2021

A preview of this year’s most anticipated fiction, nonfiction and poetry

The Books Quiz: John le Carré’s George Smiley first appeared in which book?

Plus: Michael Connelly’s smoothie lawyer and Michael Harding’s debut novel

A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs is this weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of tomorrow’s pages and round-up of the latest literary news

Edna O'Brien in her London home in 1999. Photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times
Edna O’Brien at 90: ‘To read her is to know love; of words, of literature and of life itself’

Writers pay tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest and most influential authors

The Books Quiz: Jonathan Franzen’s new novel shares a name with which TV soap?

Plus: Frank Ronan’s Irish Times winner and on first-name terms with Edna O’Brien

Seán O’Brien: warrior-like commitment. Photograph: Billy Stickland/Inpho
Browser: Predictable but engaging rugby autobiography

Brief reviews of Fuel by Seán O’Brien, and Deirdre Nuttall’s history of Irish Protestants

An Post Irish Book of the Year 2020: ‘I accept this award with deep gratitude to each and every one of you. Míle buíochas libh go léir,’ says Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat. Photograph: Clare Keogh
An Post Irish Book of the Year 2020 revealed

‘I’m overjoyed,’ says poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa, who wins for her acclaimed prose debut

The Books Quiz: What was Agatha Christie’s last Marple mystery?

Also: Debuts by Marian Keyes and Conor McPherson, plus a novel of Roger Casement

Photograph: Moment/Getty
The best books of 2020: As chosen by Irish authors

Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright, John Banville, Sarah Moss and others pick their favourites

Reese Witherspoon with Where the Crawdads Sing author Delia Owens. Photograph: @PutnamBooks
Ireland’s bestselling books of 2020 revealed

Delia Owens, Sally Rooney, Marian Keyes and Graham Norton all feature in top 10

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin: “I don’t know what to do with the bottle, I want to do something to suggest that the relationship between poetry and alcohol does not need to be a destructive one. It seems it isn’t in China. Suggestions from the poets of Ireland would be welcome.”
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin wins major Chinese poetry prize and €10,000 bottle of Baijiu

Edna O’Brien 90th birthday lecture; Kit de Waal joins UL; Maggie O’Farrell honoured

John Banville: “I despise this ‘woke’ movement. Why were they asleep for so long? The same injustices were going on. It’s become a religious cult.”
Banville criticised by fellow Booker winner for saying he despises ‘woke’ movement

Wide-ranging Hay Festival interview tackles crime fiction, religion and the Irish novel

The Books Quiz: Tina Turner’s new book is about her belief in which faith?

Plus: 2020 Irish Book Award winners and a world war’s blockbuster chronicler

Hake bake: Photograph: Lane Turner/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Irish authors’ recipes to write home about

When not cooking up their next book, Irish writers work their magic in the kitchen

Poet Stephen Sexton has been awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2020 for his first collection, If All the World and Love Were Young.
Stephen Sexton wins Rooney Prize and Jim McElroy wins Francis Ledwidge award

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and a roundup of the latest literary news

Donal Ryan: “Books, like all art, offer an escape route, however temporary, from the relentlessness of this year of fear and isolation, and I’m happy to have been able to offer some tiny break in the clouds for my readers.” Photograph: Clare Keogh
An Post Irish Book Awards 2020: a celebration of great writing

Donal Ryan, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Graham Norton, Luke O’Neill and Dara McAnulty among winners

The Books Quiz: Name one prize Danielle McLaughlin has NOT won

Plus: Booker’s 2020 victor, a Shane MacGwan bio, Dostoevsky’s last epic novel

Douglas Stuart: dedicated the book to his own mother, who died of alcoholism when he was 16.
Douglas Stuart wins 2020 Booker Prize for Shuggie Bain

Debut author is second Scot to win with very personal tale of poverty and addiction

The Books Quiz: Name the four ministries in George Orwell’s 1984

Plus: Joseph O’Connor’s martyred poet and Oddest Title of the Year contenders

Maggie O’Farrell, author of Hamnet. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
Maggie O’Farrell and Dara McAnulty win Books Are My Bag awards

A preview of Saturday’s pages and roundup of the latest literary news and events

The Books Quiz: What gets deep fried in Roddy Doyle’s The Van?

Plus: Heaney’s rebel food, Maura Laverty’s saucy soap, a young author’s stir-fry

Classic reading for the lockdown
From Jane Eyre to Brideshead Revisited, writers pick classics to read in lockdown

Sarah Moss, John Banville, Lisa McInerney, Joseph O’Connor and more on books that have stood the test of time

The Books Quiz: Which Irish Times writer composed Monto (Take Her Up to Monto)?

Plus: TS Eliot’s rebel fan, a spymaster at Slough House, Jürgen Klopp’s biographer

Sarah Gilmartin: “As a reviewer, I’ve been reading One debuts for years and I’m delighted to be published by an imprint with such a consistently high standard.”
Gatekeeper turns poacher as critic Sarah Gilmartin’s debut novel is announced

A round-up of the latest literary news and a preview of tomorrow’s books pages

The Books Quiz: Who imagined the UK going broke after leaving Europe?

Plus: Literary Dublin winner, An Post nominees, Kafka and Stoppard’s birthplaces

Wendy Erskine: winner of the Butler Literary Award for Sweet Home
Wendy Erskine wins Butler Literary Award; Michael Amherst wins Hubert Butler Essay Prize

Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor is tomorrow’s Irish Times Eason book offer

Catherine Ryan-Howard, Patrick Freyne, Anna Carey, Bernard Brogan, Ray D’Arcy, Ruth Medjber and Conor Ferguson, who have all been shortlisted for the 2020 An Post Irish Book Awards
An Post Irish Book Awards 2020 shortlists revealed

Patrick Freyne, Dara McAnulty, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Graham Norton, Keelin Shanley and Marian Keyes shortlisted

The Books Quiz: Which poet has a Belfast pub named after him?

Plus: Abbey Theatre rejects, RTÉ’s Insurrection, an ‘elegant’ history of Brown Thomas

A reader offer, tomorrow’s books pages, an Oscar Wilde competition and much more

Elizabeth Boyle on her debut The Dark Age; Wonderfest; and Baillie Gifford Prize shortlist

Anakana Schfield: “Bina initially met resistance from UK and US publishers. After a review in The Irish Times of the Knopf Canada edition, Bina found a publisher – Fleet – in the UK and Ireland.” Photograph: Arabella Campbell
Bina by Anakana Schofield shortlisted for £10,000 Goldsmiths Prize

Vancouver-based author secured British publisher after review in The Irish Times

The Books Quiz: What was The Irish RM’s actual name?

Plus: Louise Kennedy’s upcoming double header and John Banville’s old-school spy

A round-up of the latest literary news and preview of tomorrow’s books pages

The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue is Irish Times book offer at Eason

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature winner: American poet Louise Glück. Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA
Louise Glück wins Nobel Prize in Literature 2020
  • Books
  • October 8, 2020, 12:05

American writer receives award for ‘her unmistakable poetic voice’

The Books Quiz: Fairytale of New York gets its name from a work by who?

Plus: Romeo’s original crush, a popular Scandi detective, the Barnes Booker

Derek Mahon at home in Kinsale, Co. Cork in 2010. Photograph: John Minihan
‘Witty, perceptive, provocative’: President leads tributes to poet Derek Mahon

Michael Longley, ​​​​​​​Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Peter Fallon, Colm Tóibín, Vona Groarke, Colette Bryce and many more pay tribute

Dara McAnulty (16), author of Diary of a Young Naturalist.
Dara McAnulty shortlisted for Books Are My Bag readers award

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and a roundup of the latest literary news

The Books Quiz: Who wrote Naked Lunch?

Plus: What was the first name of the Brontë sisters’ brother

Harshika Kaur, one of the winners of this year’s An Post and Children’s Books Ireland Re-ImagineNation Competition.
The Boy From the Woods by Harlan Coben is this week’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of Saturday’s pages and a roundup of the latest literary news

The Books Quiz: Who wrote the famous line: ‘Hell is – other people!’

Plus: Irish name-dropping in The Great Gatsby, the author of At Swim, Two Girls

Eason offer; Irish book deals; festival news; Gallery at 50; Jan Carson shortlisted

A preview of tomorrow’s books pages and round-up of the latest literary news

The Books Quiz: What is Seamus Heaney's middle name?

Plus: Women’s Prize winner, following The Cow Book and who transalates Elena Ferrante’s novels into English?

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is this weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and roundup of the latest literary news

Thirty books to look out for this autumn

From Graham Norton's new novel to Mary McAleese’s memoir, here are our picks

The Books Quiz: What is the subtitle of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein?

Plus: Irish shortlisted, the letter in The Scarlet Letter, Graham Norton’s birthplace

The National Library of Ireland will be welcoming Dil Wickremasinghe to interview Louise O’Neill about her new book, After the Silence
Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré is tomorrow’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of tomorrow’s books pages and round-up of the latest literary news

The €100,000 award, sponsored by Dublin City Council, is the world’s most valuable annual prize for a single work of fiction published in English.
International Dublin Literary Award: Anna Burns among eight women on shortlist

Nobel Prize, Women’s Prize, Giller Prize and US National Book Award winners shortlisted

Books Quiz: In The Great Gatsby, where does Jay Gatsby live?

Plus: 2020 International Booker Prize winner and the first names of Goethe, Maupassant and Cervantes

Eugene McCabe: “Having to leave would be a kind of death. That is why I plan to have my ashes spread in the ground of an early [7th century] Celtic church on the farm.” Photograph: Bobbie Hanvey
Eugene McCabe Q&A: ‘Having to leave Drumard would be a kind of death’

A quickfire interview from 2011 with the acclaimed author of Death and Nightingales

Eugene McCabe at home in Drumard, Co Monaghan. Photograph: Pat Langan
Eugene McCabe, author and playwright, dies, aged 90
  • Books
  • August 27, 2020, 11:39

Acclaimed author of King of the Castle, Death and Nightingales and Troubles screenplays

Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, author of The Discomfort of Evening, and translator Michele Hutchison (left), who won the 2020 International Booker Prize
International Booker Prize 2020: Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld wins for debut novel

Debut novel inspired by brother's death makes Dutch writer, 29, youngest winner of translated fiction prize

Donal Ryan: ‘It’s a very personal book, a kind of oblique confrontation of loss and a celebration of familial love.’ Photograph: Alan Place
Donal Ryan: ‘I’ve got one or two sneering reviews from fellow writers’

I felt they’d barely skimmed the books but were bitter about my ‘success’, says the novelist

Hazel Gaynor: Now, more than ever, it seems to me that the past is not a foreign country where people do things differently, but is a reassuringly familiar place, one from which we can draw comfort
Where in the world are you? How second World War letters inspired a novel

Historical novelist Hazel Gaynor turned a family tragedy into an exploration of loss

Cathy Sweeney: shortlisted for the 2020 Butler Literary Award, along with her daughterr Lucy Sweeney Byrne; fellow short story writer Wendy Erskine; Ian Maleney; and Oisín Fagan. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Cathy Sweeney and daughter Lucy Sweeney Byrne shortlisted for Butler Literary Award

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and a roundup of the latest literary news

John Hume speaks to the press after the Stormont talks in 1998 that led to the Belfast Agreement. Photograph: Alan Betson
Historians pay tribute: ‘Today we live in John Hume’s Ireland, and thank God for that’

‘His extraordinary impact reflects the exceptional political leader and person he was’

John Hume in Derry in 1999. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
John Hume: ‘He was our own Martin Luther King’

What John Hume meant to me: Irish writers, from Michael Longley to Lisa McGee, pay tribute

Book quiz: Which Irish author has won Britain's top crime fiction prize?

10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Nigel ‘Nidge’ Delaney in Love/Hate
The 40 best Irish fictional characters – in order

From Nidge and Connell Waldron to Gretta Conroy, Rashers Tierney and Pegeen Mike

Akin by Emma Donoghue is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and round-up of the latest literary news

Colum McCann: longlisted for Apeirogon. Photograph: Jillian Freyer/New York Times
Booker Prize 2020: Colum McCann on longlist heavy with debuts and US authors

Hilary Mantel looks on course for Booker hat-trick with final part of Wolf Hall trilogy

Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize.
Which books are likely to make this year’s Booker longlist tonight?

There are several strong Irish contenders for this year’s prize

The books quiz: Whose debut novel was The Hunt for Red October

Test your literary knowledge with 12 questions for 12 months

Adrian McKinty: “Two years ago, I had given up on writing altogether and was working in a bar and driving an uber, and so to go from that to this is just amazing.”
Belfast author Adrian McKinty wins major crime fiction prize

Theakston Old Peculier award goes to a Belfast author for two years in a row

Fleishman Is in Trouble is this week’s Irish Times Eason book offer

A preview of tomorrow’s books pages and a round-up of the latest literary news

Olivia Kiernan: “Once I’m truly in my characters’ world and writing with some speed then longhand isn’t quick enough”
‘I think because of the pandemic readers are choosing propulsive and absorbing reads’

Olivia Kiernan on her latest novel, her writing life and the books she loves

The books quiz: Fever Pitch is about Nick Hornby’s love for which club?

10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Fleishman Is in Trouble is this week’s Irish Times Eason book offer

A preview of tomorrow’s books pages and a round-up of the latest literary news

The books quiz: Who adapted his own crime novel for a BBC TV series?

10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Sarah Gilmartin: “Awards like the Mairtín Crawford are great because they give you the impetus to write. The recognition is good for the soul, and the money affords you time and space away from other work to persist with writing projects, to go deep into the draft.”
Sarah Gilmartin and Alan Weadick win Mairtín Crawford awards

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and round-up of the week’s literary news

The books quiz: Zadie Smith is married to which Irish writer?

10 questions to test your literary knowledge

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead is this week’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and round-up of the week’s literary news

Niamh Campbell: “To be awarded the equivalent of a year’s salary for a single story is absurdly lucky, but I also feel glad I chased the dream because I feel fulfilled, at a soul level, as a person when I write professionally.”
Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award won by Irish author for two years running

A Q&A with This Happy author Niamh Campbell, winner of £30,000 short story prize

Books of 2020: Max Porter, Emilie Pine, Sara Baume and more pick the best reads of the year so far

Maggie O’Farrell, Curtis Sittenfeld and Doireann Ní Ghríofa feature in our summer-friendly titles

The books quiz: Who was the alcoholic priest in Strumpet City?

10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Colson Whitehead: ‘I lacked the imagination to conceive of how terrible Trump would be.’ Photograph: Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty
Colson Whitehead: ‘I lacked imagination to conceive how terrible Trump would be’

The winner of two Pulitzer prizes on the exhausting task of writing about racism

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