Colm Tóibín’s Long Island is Waterstones Irish Book of the Year
Books newsletter: A preview of Saturday’s pages; Richard Flanagan wins Baillie Gifford Prize; Irish translator wins Stephen Spender Prize; MS Readathon; (S)worn State(s) launch at MoLI; Never Too Late Award; Dublin Literary Award judges; Limerick Writers’ Centre launch; Rory Brennan dies
By Martin Doyle
Author Maggie O’Farrell: I had a teacher at school who took the register, called my name and said to me, ‘Are your family in the IRA?’
Gambling Man by Lionel Barber: A lively account of the rollercoaster life of SoftBank’s billionaire founder
My Animals and Other Animals by Bill Bailey: Tales of the comedian’s feathered, furred and scaled friends
Poem of the Week: Gó gan Ghá/Unnecessary Lie
The Scribes of March: in praise of writers’ groups
A Benedict Kiely Reader: Drink to the Bird and Selected Essays review - Words on the importance of place
Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year: Celebrity ‘manifesting’ influences 2024 choice
Book Club
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Believe Nothing Until it is Officially Denied: Claud Cockburn and the Invention of Guerrilla Journalism - A manic press career
By Conor O'Clery
Motivations of the Irish who served in the first World War were complicated
By Ronan McGreevy and Dr Emer Purcell
Children’s author Sibéal Pounder: ‘I was bullied at school. It made me analyse people in a forensic way’
By Martin Doyle
Booker winner Samantha Harvey: ‘My grandad bought land in Donegal. He was afraid of nuclear war, and thought Ireland would be exempt’
By John Self
Wise Women by Sharon Blackie and Angharad Wynne: Elder female archetypes liberated from ancient European stories
By Adrienne Murphy
Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey: A powerful exposé of ‘law enforcement misconduct and chicanery’
By Brian Cliff
The Taiwan Story: How a Small Island Will Dictate the Global Future – Does China have an appetite to take its ultimate prize by force?
By Oliver Farry
Mad, Isn’t It? by Emma Doran and Country Fail by Killian Sundermann: Two comedy books that offer genuine comic relief
By Brigid O'Dea
