Feb 19, 2011 | Latest
Finished ‘Negotiating With The Dead’ by Margaret Atwood on the role of the writer. It was just about okay. Book to follow up on – ‘Doctor Glas’ by Hjalmar Soderberg 14th February. Interview with Brian Rowan re Gerry Adams standing in Louth, published in Belfast...
Feb 2, 2011 | Latest
Finished ‘The Post Office Girl’ by Stefan Zweig, a sad, desperate story set in the 1920s about a poor young woman whom life is passing by, suddenly lights up, then fades again. The novel was found after Viennese-born Zweig and his wife committed suicide in Rio de...
Jan 4, 2011 | Latest
Finished third re-reading of ‘The Art of Fiction’ by David Lodge, an excellent guide. Finished ‘The Case For Literature’ by Gao Xinghian, an unremitting critic of totalitarianism, nationalism and ideology and who argues that the artist has to be an individual and...
Dec 7, 2010 | Latest
Finished ‘The Drinker’ by Hans Fallada, a first-person narrative and semi-autobiographical portrait of an alcoholic who ends up in asylum with his life (a bit like Germany itself) in bits. The obsessiveness of the main character, Erwin Sommer, somehow reminded me of...
Nov 19, 2010 | Latest
Heard the sad news that publisher Steve McDonogh died a few days after suffering a massive brain haemorrhage. I had worked with Steve on the essay book on the hunger strike, published in 2006, and first met him about 1982. Presented prizes at Belfast Royal Academy...
Nov 11, 2010 | Latest
Interviewed on BBC’s ‘Talkback’ and UTV television re the non-wearing of the poppy by nationalists though SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie has now sprouted one, fully-formed. Wednesday 10th November. Along with others as guests I represented Féile an Phobail at East...
