There is a new Lucy Caldwell Christmas short story to look forward to in The Irish Times this Saturday.
Reviews are Donald Clarke on Hollywood: The Oral History by Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson, and Cinema Speculation by Quentin Tarantino; Michael Kerr on Rewriting the Troubles: War and Propaganda Ireland and Algeria by Patrick Anderson; Ronan McGreevy on Síobhra Aiken’s Spiritual Wounds, Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War; Ted Smyth on David Hollinger’s Christianity’s American Fate; Niall O Dochartaigh on Robert Savage’s Northern Ireland, the BBC, and Censorship in Thatcher’s Britain; Vic Duggan on The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain’s Financial Crisis by Charles Read; Louise Kennedy on An Alphabet for Gourmets by MFK Fisher; Ruth McKee on A Down Home Meal for These Difficult Times by Meron Hadero; Charles Travis on Unsettled Land; John O’Donnell on Lansdowne FC; and Sarah Gilmartin on The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson.
On December 31st, look out for a comprehensive four-page preview of Irish and international fiction and nonfiction titles to look forward to in 2023. Reviews are Paschal Donohoe on Out of the Blue: The Inside Story of the unexpected rise and rapid fall of Liz Truss by Harry Cole and James Heale; The Fall of Boris Johnson by Sebastian Payne; and How we Build a Country that Works by Lisa Nandy; Sarah Gilmartin on We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman; Brendan Daly on Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World; and there is an epic poem by Paul Muldoon, Near Izium, his response to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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Forêt restaurant review: A masterclass in French classic cooking in Dublin 4
Charlene McKenna: ‘Within three weeks, I turned 40, had my first baby and lost my father’
Restaurateur Gráinne O’Keefe: I cut out sugar from my diet and here’s how it went
Ireland’s new dating scene: Finding love the old-fashioned way
Marian Keyes and Michelle Gallen are among the 16 authors who have been longlisted for the Comedy Women in Print Prize for the best comedy novel. The winner will receive £3,000 from the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society. The runner-up will receive £1,000.
The longlisted titles are: Love Marriage by Monica Ali (Virago); The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam (Canongate); Either/Or by Elif Batuman (Jonathan Cape); The Writing on the Wall by Jenny Éclair (Hachette Children’s); Factory Girls by Michelle Gallen (John Murray) ; Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Transworld) ; Again, Rachel by Marian Keyes (Michael Joseph); Impossible by Sarah Lotz (HarperCollins); The Lock In by Phoebe Luckhurst (Penguin); Are We Having Fun Yet? by Lucy Mangan (Souvenir Press); Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason (Weidenfeld and Nicolson); Wahala by Nikki May (Doubleday); The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle); Did You Miss Me? by Sophia Money-Coutts (HQ) ; One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe (Viking); and Sedating Elaine by Dawn Winter (Fleet).
The prize was launched by actor, author and comedian Helen Lederer in 2019 as a literary platform to increase exposure for diverse female witty voices in comedy fiction, and as a way of celebrating fresh and established talent. She said: “I can’t believe how CWIP has grown and evolved in four years! Apart from celebrating a wider reach of topics in witty fiction this year, we can also celebrate a growing list of new ‘career writers’ who may not have been published without this platform. Our USP has to be having a publisher, trusting enough to publish an unknown writer from the start.”
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Congratulations to the Irish publishers who have been listed in The Bookseller 150 this year: Ruth Hallinan, Ivan O’Brien, Ruth Gill, Maria Dickenson, Liam Hanley and Elaina Ryan.
