R.F. Foster's 'On Seamus Heaney'
Roy Foster’s overview of the life and career of Seamus Heaney is careful, balanced, and skilful, covering a lot of ground in a relatively short book.
Read MoreTyrant: Shakespeare on Power, by Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Greenblatt’s analysis of 7 of Shakespeare’s plays which depict tyranny has become all the more dismayingly relevant since its first publication in 2018.
Read MoreOn Claire Keegan and Fintan O'Toole
Claire Keegan and Fintan O’Toole have written two superb books, which approach the same idea from utterly different angles.
Read MoreOn Reading More
Thoughts on reading, and on reading more, occasioned by Ian Leslie’s Ruffian Substack: Nine Ways to Read: ideas for reading more and better books.
Read MoreCBI Pride Reading Guide
Children’s Books Ireland have produced a handy and helpful selection of ‘100 great reads for ages 0-18’ to mark Pride Month 2022.
Read MoreAlex Quigley's 'Closing the Writing Gap'
Alex Quigley’s Closing the Writing Gap joins its predecessors on vocabulary and writing to form one of the very best resources around for teachers of all disciplines.
Read MoreZoe Enser's 'Bringing Forth the Bard'
Zoe Enser’s Bringing Forth the Bard is a valuable guide for both novice and experienced teachers of Shakespeare.
Read MoreBernardine Evaristo's 'Manifesto'
Bernardine Evaristo’s autobiographical account traces her personal, sexual and creative journeys on the way to her recent artistic success and her ‘established and unswayable’ character.
Read MoreAn Cailín Ciúin | The Quiet Girl
Colm Bairéad’s superb version of Claire Keegan’s ‘Foster’ is beautifully done.
Read MoreNeil Sentance: 'Water and Sky' & 'Ridge &Furrow'
Neil Sentance has written two marvellous short collections, imagining the lives of his family over many decades on the border of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.
Read More'Your Show' by Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Ashley Hickson-Lovence’s novel Your Show, an imagining of the career of the only black Premier League referee, Uriah Rennie, is a zippy and enjoyable read.
Read MoreNotes on 'Never Let Me Go'
A post with some notes for those teaching Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go (on the Leaving Certificate comparative list):
Read MoreVivian Gornick on J.L. Carr
Vivian Gornick’s Unfinished Business includes a chapter on J.L. Carr’s beautiful short novel A Month in the Country, as she reconsiders it after reading Pat Barker’s Regeneration.
Read MoreSonia Thompson on Ron Berger
Sonia Thompson’s short ‘In Action’ book on Ron Berger’s An Ethic of Excellence is concise, practical and helpful for teachers and school leaders at any level.
Read MoreBernard MacLaverty's 'Blank Pages'
In his late 70s, Bernard MacLaverty has given us a marvellous collection of short stories of the highest quality, in the ironically-titled Blank Pages.
Read MoreToni Morrison's 'Recitatif'
Toni Morrison only published one short story, ‘Recitatif’. It is now published for the first time in book form, with a brilliant introductory essay by Zadie Smith.
Read MoreJames Harpur's 'The Examined Life'
James Harpur’s collection The Examined Life is a highly pleasurable sequence of poems recalling his time in an English boarding school in the 1970s.
Read MoreMy Books of 2021
My choice of the best new (and some old) books I read this year.
Read MoreBooks of the Year lists, 2021
My annual summary of highlights of Books of the Year features in the media.
Read MoreWilliam Wall's 'Smugglers in the Underground Hug Trade'
William Wall’s new book of poems tells the story of a strange year, moving from Italy just before the pandemic started to life in County Cork, culminating in Christmas 2020.
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