BBC – The Arts Show Interview

BBC – The Arts Show Interview

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Marie-Louise Muir, the main presenter on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Arts Show. We met below the Quakers Cottage on Black Mountain where several scenes from my novel, The Wrong Man, are set. The ten minute interview can be heard...
In Memory of Bob Conklin

In Memory of Bob Conklin

This story first appeared in my book All The Dead Voices, which was published in 2002. Based on his diary and letters it tells of how a young Canadian soldier (and his comrades) could hardly wait to get to France and the front, and his experiences of battle. At dinner...
Duke Street, ’68

Duke Street, ’68

Today, 5th October marks the fiftieth anniversary of the RUC attack on the Civil Rights March in Duke Street, Derry. Tomorrow, beginning at 3pm, the march and intended route back then to the Guildhall will be replicated by Sinn Féin. One of those on the march on 5th...
Days of Hunger – Days of War

Days of Hunger – Days of War

At times, reading this brilliantly researched and brilliantly presented story is like revisiting the prison protests in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh and Armagh Gaol, so startling are the parallels. What, of course, it does prove is that the British, well-versed and...
The Glas House

The Glas House

“The dream of happiness does not exist that does not bite its own tail,” says the eponymous Dr Glas in the secret diary he writes as he sits alone at his window, watching the weather and light go through their phases. It is also in the diary’s pages that we learn of a...