George O’Brien: ‘Writing has taught me to be disciplined, to be patient, to persist’Brought to Book Q&A: Irish author and academic on how he writes and what he readsThu Feb 19 2015 - 11:43
Alex Miller: ‘Simple prose is valued more now than a decade ago’‘Brought to Book’ Q&A: Australian author of Coal Creek and The Ancestor Game on the books that have inspired himWed Feb 18 2015 - 17:36
Peter Swanson: ‘Being lost in a book is one of the greatest feelings in the world’Brought to Book Q&A: Author of The Kind Worth Killing on Harry Potter, Lucky Jim and his other favourite readsTue Feb 17 2015 - 11:17
Philip Taffs: Hitchcock disciple turned Gillian FlynnaphileDon’t join a writing group – unless Stephen King, Bret Easton Ellis, Gillian Flynn and Donna Tartt are in it. Join a reading group insteadMon Feb 09 2015 - 17:38
David Butler: ‘Great writers enrich experience, even the mundane’Brought to Book Q&A: Author of The Judas Kiss and City of Dis on what he reads and how he writesTue Feb 03 2015 - 15:00
The Book Quiz: Political memoirs, teen fiction and comic fantasyTest the breadth of your literary knowledge with this week's pick 'n' mix book quizWed Jan 28 2015 - 17:00
Jane Lythell: ‘Flawed people are interesting. It doesn’t matter if your readers dislike them’Brought to Book Q&A: Former Bafta CEO on her favourite authors and writing her own novelsTue Jan 27 2015 - 16:00
Miriam Frank: ‘Reading sharpened my understanding of human behaviour’Brought to Book Q&A: Author of ‘My Innocent Absence’ on the texts which inspired her during her nomadic lifeMon Jan 26 2015 - 15:00
Ketil Bjornstad: ‘The novel is the best weapon against multi-tasking’Brought to Book Q&A: Norwegian author and pianist on where he writes and what he readsFri Jan 23 2015 - 15:00
Alexis Stamatis: ‘I read to find myself again and to re-examine my place in the world’Brought to Book Q&A: Greek novelist and poet on Emily Dickinson and Robert MouzilThu Jan 22 2015 - 15:00
Alison Weir: ‘I loved fairy tales from infancy’Brought to Book Q&A: English novelist and historian on inspiring novels and favourite wordsWed Jan 21 2015 - 16:54
From cult classics to new releases: It's the Book QuizTest your literary knowledge - past, present and future!Wed Jan 21 2015 - 15:00
Dacia Maraini on the books and characters which inspire her‘I consider my life a journey in the magnificent, enchanted world of books’Mon Jan 19 2015 - 15:00
Philip Hensher: ‘Don’t aspire to be an author. Just aspire to write a particular book’‘I’ve read Proust four times and every time it felt like a major punctuation mark in my life’Fri Jan 16 2015 - 15:03
The Undertaking, by Audrey Magee: the new Irish Times Book Club reading choiceJoin with us over the next few weeks as we explore this acclaimed wartime love storyThu Jan 15 2015 - 17:41
Neil White: ‘Enid Blyton turned me towards mystery and horror’‘Whatever sick and twisted deed you read about, I’ve come across worse in real life’Thu Jan 15 2015 - 15:00
Kate Beaufoy: ‘There is no higher form of pleasure than that afforded by a good book and a room with a view’The most beautiful book I own is a leather-bound sketchbook that belonged to my artist grandfather – the model for Teddy Lloyd in Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – and it is a key narrative device in my latest novel, Liberty Silk'Tue Jan 13 2015 - 07:39
Nadine Dorries: in praise of Enid Blyton, Hilary Mantel and audio books‘I write very early in the morning. I absolutely cannot write at night,’ says the MP whose Irish roots inspired her bestsellersMon Jan 12 2015 - 12:53
Liam Harte on Raymond Carver, Seamus Heaney and Edward SaidThe challenge of finding the words to match the thought is never-endingMon Dec 08 2014 - 12:08
The Closet of Savage Mementos, by Nuala Ní ChonchúirThis month’s Irish Times Book Club choice is a moving, beautifully written portrait of love, grief and motherhoodFri Dec 05 2014 - 12:55
Cormac James: how to choose between Bartleby and Brer Rabbit, Marlowe and Molloy?‘I think we read largely to have clarified and confirmed ideas we already sympathise with, rather than the reverse’Thu Dec 04 2014 - 12:00
Us by David Nicholls: Witty tale of a father’s journey of self-discoveryThe follow-up to One Day is a portrait of a family break-up on a modern-day Grand Tour of Europe. It's well worth the trip, but it’s not the holiday of a lifetimeSun Nov 30 2014 - 14:00
Colin Barrett wins Guardian first book awardYoung Skins author has already won Rooney Prize for Irish LiteratureWed Nov 26 2014 - 21:28
The Book Quiz: prize winners, evil masterminds and letters homeTest the range of your literary knowledge with this week's eclectic book quizWed Nov 26 2014 - 15:15
Breaking the silence on the Manchester MartyrsOn this day in 1867, the Manchester Martyrs were executed. Local historian Joseph O’Neill discusses his book about the men and their legacySun Nov 23 2014 - 11:11
From Dead Souls to Death Comes to Pemberley: it's the Book QuizNovember is traditionally the month of the Dead, so test your literary knowledge in our deadly book quizWed Nov 19 2014 - 12:00
Sarah Moore Fitzgerald: ‘Human beings need stories. It’s how we make sense of the world’‘Reading is an adventure – an utterly irreplaceable way of engaging with images, ideas and the human condition’Wed Nov 19 2014 - 01:15
Colm Tóibín, Mary Costello and Colette Bryce on Costa shortlistPrevious winner, first-time novelist and Derry poet in running for £30,000 prizeTue Nov 18 2014 - 19:30
Lia Mills: ‘Books are like children, leaving home. You want the world to treat them well’A book isn’t written in one sitting, it comes one word at a time, and a few words a day will get you there in the end'Tue Nov 18 2014 - 01:00
Maureen Duffy: ‘Imagination, compassion, passion are what matters’‘Don’t give up the day job, find your own voice, read, and ignore publishing fashions. Do your own thing’Mon Nov 17 2014 - 12:41
The Book Quiz: poetry, Poirot and Paul MurraySharpen your literary skills with this week's book quizWed Nov 12 2014 - 14:00
Six of the best: Davy Byrnes Stories 2014Review: After a summer of blockbusters, this compact collection is a reminder that there is often more satisfaction in a selection of starters than in a traditional three-course mealSat Nov 08 2014 - 01:00
Joe Joyce: a homage to Ernest HemingwayReading is very pleasurable but no substitute for doing; writing has taught me to treat words that come easily with suspicionWed Nov 05 2014 - 01:00
Julia Kelly on Skippy Dies, A Girl Named Skippy and other books she loves‘I came to reading late and wish I had appreciated books earlier in my life. There were so many in our house that I took them for granted’Tue Nov 04 2014 - 00:50
A sneak preview of tomorrow’s books pages in The Irish TimesFergal Keane on Brian O’Driscoll, Terry Wogan on Graham Norton, John Bruton on Ivan Yates, Diarmaid Ferriter on Des O’Malley, and Anna Carey on Nick HornbyFri Oct 31 2014 - 14:00
Book Club: four questions to set you thinking about A History of LonelinessChristina Hunt Mahony reviewed John Boyne’s novel for us when it came out. Here she suggests some aspects you might like to exploreFri Oct 31 2014 - 12:30
Mary Costello shortlisted for top prize as first novel is publishedColm Tóibín, Joseph O’Connor and David Mitchell also in running for Eason Novel of the YearThu Oct 30 2014 - 12:00
Michael Longley shortlisted for £20,000 TS Eliot PrizeLast year’s prize was won by fellow Northern poet Sinéad Morrissey for her collection ParallaxMon Oct 27 2014 - 16:25
This month's Book Club choice: A History of Loneliness, by John BoyneThe first Irish Times Book Club choice is the bestselling Dublin author’s 13th novel, but the first to be set in Ireland. It tells the story of abuse in the Catholic Church seen through the eyes of a good priest. Now read onMon Oct 27 2014 - 12:00
Introducing the Irish Times Book ClubOn Monday, we will reveal the first novel we will be discussing and launch a weekly email newsletter to keep readers abreast of our expanding literary coverage on irishtimes.comSat Oct 25 2014 - 00:58
Roy Keane book sees Irish sales top 10,000 last weekBook also tops British chart with 21,000 salesWed Oct 15 2014 - 12:47
Author Hugo Hamilton honoured by GermanyAmbassador says ‘his writings bring the Germans closer to the Irish and the Irish closer to the Germans’Tue Oct 14 2014 - 18:13
Patrick Modiano wins Nobel Prize for LiteratureFrench author (69) perhaps best known for Lacombe Lucien screenplayThu Oct 09 2014 - 12:22
Sinead O’Connor to keep sex life beneath, not between, the coversSinger claims promise to ‘dish the sexual dirt’ in memoir ‘just a funny quote’ to promote bookThu Oct 09 2014 - 11:10
Sinead O’Connor: ‘I will dish the dirt on everyone I’ve slept with’Controversial singer signs deal with PenguinTue Oct 07 2014 - 16:51
