Readers love to read about writers writing, and this anthology, expertly edited by Declan Meade, gathers some of Ireland’s best-known contemporary writers to celebrate 25 years of the Writers Centre. The essays range from accounts of the small but determined beginnings of the centre, against all the odds, by its first director Peter Sirr, to deeply personal and unguarded tales of the inglorious struggle of writing in small rooms from London to Allihies by Lisa McInerney, Kevin Barry and Joseph O’Connor.
There is a purposeful balance between the serious and the outright hilarious, with the life-saver that is a uniquely Irish sense of humour running through many of the pieces. Alan Titley’s characteristically Joycean take on Ireland and the place of the arts in our society today appears in both Irish and English. For a quarter of a century the centre has been a sort of supporting wall against which writers can lean so they can take stock of their efforts, and this wonderfully readable collection does justice to the centre’s work and the people who continue to do it.
