Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle

Martin Doyle is Books Editor

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

Adrian Duncan: “I am very moved and proud to be awarded this wonderful book prize. To be associated with John McGahern, a writer I have admired for so long, is an incredible honour.” Photograph: Sean Breithaupt
Adrian Duncan wins inaugural John McGahern Book Prize

Colm Tóibín praises ‘pitch perfect debut’ Love Notes from a German Building Site

The books quiz: What is the name of Anne Enright’s first novel?

10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Domhnall O’Donoghue: Years ago, when I battled an insatiable desire to be liked by everyone, I quipped that I’d only truly make it in life when I had a stalker! Crazy For You is how I imagine that fantasy playing out.
‘I started writing because as an actor you need others’ permission to work’

Ros na Rún star Domhnall O’Donoghue on the influences that fed into his new novel

Book quiz: Which coffee chain is named after Capt Ahab’s first mate?

The weekly quiz ... 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Christine Dwyer Hickey: “Writing a novel takes a big chunk of one’s life – The Narrow Land was six years in the making – which is why I really, really appreciate this recognition.”
Christine Dwyer Hickey wins £25,000 Walter Scott Prize

This year’s Dublin One City One Book author wins for novel about artists Edward and Jo Hopper

Clockwise from left: Niamh Campbell, Louise Kennedy, Daniel O’Malley, Shawn Vestal , Alexia Tolas and Namwali Serpell, shortlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award
Louise Kennedy, Niamh Campbell, Adrian McKinty and Michelle Gallen shortlisted

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

Book quiz: What is Boo Radley’s first name in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Are you on first-name terms with authors and characters? 10 questions to test your literary knowledge

Niamh O’Donnell, the new director of Poetry Ireland. Photograph: Ste Murray
Niamh O’Donnell is new Poetry Ireland director

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

Dominic Cummings: subject of a new satire by Arthur Mathews. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA
Father Ted creator to publish spoof Dominic Cummings diary

Faber to release Arthur Mathews’s satire on controversial British government adviser

Fergal McNally: “I spend more of my life than I’d like to reading emails. Recently I opened one from The Caterpillar. Now all I want to do is write something that could make a reader feel half as happy as reading that email made me.”
Fergal McNally is first Irish winner of Caterpillar Poetry Prize

Roger McGough chooses winning poem for children who ‘sometimes feel out-of-step with the world’

A still from Paddy Raff’s skit on the frustrations of hosting a family Zoom quiz.
Paddy Raff: Comedy star of the coronavirus lockdown

A young Belfast comedian is taking social media by storm with his lockdown-life skits

Prize book quiz: test your knowledge to win a €200 books hamper

Welcome to The Irish Times prize book quiz: 50 questions to test your literary knowledge

€10,000 Michel Déon Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist revealed

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

The winners will be revealed on June 20th when the festival was due to be taking place.
Shortlists for €30,000 Dalkey Literary Awards revealed

Dalkey Book Festival cancelled but prizes recognise Irish writing is having a moment

Louise Nealon: “I am looking forward to post-lockdown celebrations, but for now, I am dancing around my childhood bedroom in a Harry Potter dressing gown.”
Twenty-seven-year-old Irish debut novelist signs six-figure deal

Louise Nealon was spotted by top agent after her story was published in The Irish Times

“Billy O’Callaghan’s style is rich and sonorous, and he surveys his characters’ ageing bodies and dwindling horizons with a dauntless eye, yet with such compassion that the final effect is to enhance their dignity.”
Edna O’Brien, Billy O’Callaghan and David Keenan shortlisted for major prizes

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

Máire Zepf, the first Children’s Writing Fellow at Queen’s Univerity Belfast and Seamus Heaney Centre, has won the Book of the Year Award for her verse novel Nóinín
Women win big at KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards

Máire Zepf, Sarah Crossan, Ashling Lindsay, Kim Sharkey and Meg Grehan honoured

Sheila Forsey is an honours graduate from Maynooth in creative writing. The Secret of Eveline House is published by Poolbeg Press
‘I am deeply interested in Ireland’s complex past’

‘I have a ritual of making tea, lighting a candle and then I am gone into my fictional world’

Leonard and Hungry Paul author Rónán Hession
Book news round-up: Rónán Hession shortlisted for major prize

A preview of Saturday’s pages; Pigott Poetry Prize; BAIS prize; Trócaire Poetry Ireland competition; ILFD podcasts; Cruinniú na nÓ(...)

An interview with author Richard Ford is one of the highlights of this Saturday’s books coverage in The Irish Times. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year shortlist revealed

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

Marie Cassidy: “I have witnessed death in all its guises. This book is an attempt to enable you to see with my eyes, to walk carefully in my footprints beyond the police tape.” Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins
Former state pathologist Marie Cassidy to publish memoir in October

A preview of Saturday’s books pages

Prof Luke O’Neill, head of immunology at Trinity College Dublin, said: “This book is a fantastic resource for children, and explains the Coronavirus in a colourful and calming way. Adults will learn a thing or two, too”
Gruffalo’s Axel Scheffler illustrates free children’s book explaining Covid-19

Gill Books download ‘explains the coronavirus in a colourful and calming way’

Damen O’Brien: “Sometimes you have to give up on your favourites, but sometimes it is worth ignoring the feedback and sticking with your gut. I am glad I did with this poem.”
A €10,000 poem: read Nave, winner of the Moth Poetry Prize

Judge Claudia Rankine explains why she chose Australian poet Damen O’Brien

Eavan Boland in Dublin in July 2018: “Our devastation at the loss of Eavan Boland will be tempered by profound gratitude for what she gave us and what she left us,” writes Paula Meehan. Photograph: Barry Cronin
Eavan Boland: ‘Pathfinder, farewell’ – tributes to ‘a pillar of Irish poetry’

‘I will cherish her exemplary life for the rest of my own life’

Eavan Boland: one of Ireland’s foremost poets
Eavan Boland, leading Irish poet and champion of the female voice, dies aged 75

Poet, who returned last month from teaching at Stanford University, suffered a stroke

Isabel Galleymore has won the 2020 John Pollard International Poetry Prize for her debut book Significant Other
Irish booksellers boosted by An Post deal and reopening of key wholesale supplier

A preview of Saturday’s books coverage and a roundup of this week’s literary news

The shortlist for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction
O’Farrell, Mantel and Evaristo on Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist

Jenny Offill, Natalie Haynes and Angie Cruz also in running for £30,000 prize

Nicola Pierce: “I first read The Diary of Anne Frank. as a teenager and it was hugely inspiring to discover a book written by a 15-year-old. “ Photograph: City Headshots Dublin
‘I had two operations, chemo, radiation, my wedding and turned 50 before I hit send’

Nicola Pierce Q&A: ‘You will never be lonely as long as you have a book in your hand’

Vinny Byrne packing books for delivery at Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop in The Cornstore at Middle Street in Galway city. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy
Boost for readers and authors as Irish bookshops back online

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

Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick: “I thought I’d make a picture book based on the Táin but quickly realised that was daft – the legend is full of violence, death and sex.”
A picture book on the Táin would be daft. What if I tried writing it as a YA novel?

Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick reimagines the Táin as a tale of first love and teenage aggression

Stephen Sexton: lives in Belfast where he teaches at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry. Photograph: Michael Weir
Stephen Sexton shortlisted for £30,000 Dylan Thomas Prize

A preview of tomorrow’s book pages

Helena Close: I heard a story about a mother who walked out on her family and couldn’t stop thinking about the effect that would have on her children
Helena Close Q&A: ‘Serve your apprenticeship. There are no short cuts’

The author of The Gone Book on her writing life

Steve Cavanagh: “There’s a big trend toward high-concept, standalone psychological thrillers. Long may it continue – they’re usually great.”
Steve Cavanagh: ‘I love Bosch for his heart, Reacher because he is unfettered by laws’

The Belfast-based thriller writer on his new book, Fifty Fifty, and his literary loves

Seán Hewitt: will host a new weekly podcast, Unlaunched Books. Photograph: Bríd O’Donovan.
Poets launch Unlaunched Books podcast

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

The six titles on the 2020 International Booker Prize shortlist
International Booker Prize 2020 shortlist announced

Translations from Spanish, German, Dutch, Farsi and Japanese up for £50,000 prize

I want a list of books that are guaranteed to distract and entertain me, that will put a smile back on my face, that might even make me laugh out loud. Photograph: Getty Images
Laugh in the time of Corona: Favourite funny books

No, I don’t want to read about the plague. I want to smile, laugh even. These might help

Ruth Gilligan: I have this very vivid memory of finishing The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and thinking “yep, I think I’d like to be a writer”. Photograph: Paul Musso, Hay Festival 2019
Ruth Gilligan Q&A: ‘the tension between modern and ancient Ireland fascinates me’

The Butchers author on her new novel set along the Border during the BSE crisis

Brigitte de Valk has been awarded the Cúirt New Writing Prize for Short Fiction for her story The Lobster.
Winners of Cúirt New Writing Prize announced

A preview of Saturday’s books pages

Philip’s Book Shop in Mallow, Co Cork, was started in 1989 by husband and wife Philip and Catherine O’Flynn
Philip’s Book Shop in Mallow and Lilliput Press represent Ireland at British Book Awards

A preview of Saturday’s books pages

The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer

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

Three Irish novels on £25,000 Walter Scott Prize longlist

Christine Dwyer Hickey, Joseph O’Connor and Niall Williams up for historical fiction award

Author Michael Harding at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, Co Monaghan. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Michael Harding is Bealtaine Festival Book Club author 2020

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

Church of Sveti Jovan at Kaneo, Ohrid, North Macedonia. Photograph: Enrico Bottino/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Browser: A family history weaved through Balkan landscape

Brief reviews of The Revisionaries by A R Moxon and Maugherow: A Much Wilder Place

Bargain!
Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah Davis-Goff is new Irish Times Eason offer

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

My nan once told me, “your mum’s out philandering”. She meant ‘gallivanting’. Photograph: Getty Images
‘I had to tell my mum not to say that as it means something else’

Words don’t always mean what people think they mean. Just look at this Twitter conversation

2020 International Booker Prize: Dutch author Marieke Lucas Rijneveld has been longlisted for the as yet unpublished The Discomfort of Evening
2020 International Booker Prize longlist revealed

Michel Houellebecq and Irish translator Shaun Whiteside up for £50,000 award

Laureate na nÓg Sarah Crossan won the Carnegie Medal previously for One in 2016 and was shortlisted twice: for The Weight of Water in 2013 and Apple and Rain in 2015. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill
Sarah Crossan and Kit de Waal longlisted for Carnegie Medal

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

Just One More Question by Niall Tubridy is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer

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

The cast of Lisa McGee’s Channel 4 comedy Derry Girls: Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Dylan Llewellyn, Louisa Clare Harland and Saoirse Monica Jackson
Derry Girls and Milkman shortlisted for Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize

Katy Hayward’s Twitter account shortlisted for separate Ewart-Biggs prize on Brexit

Gavin McCrea: “I was bullied severely from the ages of 10 to 20, after which I left Ireland vowing never to return, and now I have and I am made revisit those old experiences”
Author Gavin McCrea victim of homophobic attack in Dublin

Gang broke writer’s nose and cheekbone just after he had finished novel at UCD library

Stephen Fry, festival directors Sian Smyth and David McWilliams, Jony Ive and Bono at last year’s Dalkey Book Festival. Photograph: Conor McCabe
Dalkey Book Festival launches €30,000 literary awards

Festival marks second decade with €20,000 Novel of the Year and €10,000 Emerging Writer prizes

A portrait of Darran Anderson by Liz Seabrook
The Irish Times Books podcast with Darran Anderson, author of Inventory

Listen to the author discuss what inspired his memoir of his family’s lives in Derry city

Yesterday’s Bookseed event at Dooradoyle Library in Limerick with writer and illustrator Mary Murphy. Photograph: Aingeala Flannery
The Deepest Breath by Meg Grehan shortlisted for Waterstones Children’s Book Prize

A preview of Saturday’s books pages and details of the latest Irish Times Eason offer

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill presents fellow poet Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh with the “Parnell Stick”, which she had been given in turn by Seamus Heaney. Photograph Nick Bradshaw
A miracle, not a crime: gender balance, race and poetry in The Irish Times

A new report criticises our poetry coverage. We explore the issues and defend our record

Knife by Jo Nesbo is this weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer

A preview of Saturday’s books pages

Little Faith by Nickolas Butler is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer

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

Little Faith by Nickolas Butler is this Saturday’s Irish Times Eason offer

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

Sarah Moss, author and new creative writing assistant professor at UCD. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell for The Irish Times
Sarah Moss: ‘Ireland is progressing while England is rapidly and deliberately regressing’

Sarah Moss, acclaimed author of Ghost Wall, talks about leaving Brexit behind to move to Ireland and teach in UCD

Daisy Jones and the Six is this weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer

The latest book news and a sneak preview of Saturday’s books pages

Jonathan Coe: the judges called his 13th novel, Middle England, a scathingly comic portrayal of the social and family divisions that bedevil Brexit Britain, “the perfect novel for now”. Photograph: Getty Images
Costa Book Awards 2019 winners revealed

Jonathan Coe’s Middle England wins novel award as debut authors win three categories

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley is this weekend’s Irish Times offer at Eason

A sneak preview of Saturday’s books pages

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, a Holocaust love story based on a true story
The bestselling book in Ireland for 2019 revealed

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is Ireland’s bestselling book for a second year

Caragh Maxwell: a second-year student at Sligo IT, her essay was the most popular article in Irish Times Books this year
Irish Times Books 2019: our most-read articles

A student’s moving essay on her body pipped Irish writers’ views on Brexit for first place

Diana Athill’s prose is luscious, her themes contemporary and the narrative will entertain the reader until the end. File photograph: Eamonn McCabe
Riveting reissue aged like a good wine

Brief reviews of Don’t Look at Me Like That, The Manager’s Tale, Above Average at Games, Stories of the Sahara, Through Her Eyes a(...)

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