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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Conor Pope: What if dry January turned into dry forever? Eight ways life has changed since I stopped drinking in 2022
‘The minute I sat down on the train, I knew I’d been scammed’: Are the Irish susceptible to con artists?
An unsettling conversation on the Dart leaves other passengers open-mouthed in amazement
‘That would have never happened in Ireland,’ my boyfriend said after my trip to Australian A&E
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.
