Sebastian Barry (2009) The Secret Scripture. You should never step into the book you’ve read before (or something like that). Sebastian Barry is a terrific writer. This book won the Costa Book of the Year 2008. The Secret Scripture is in many ways the story of Ireland after the Famine, with a centurion Roseanne McNulty providing the handwritten shape of her life played out against the Civil War years in Ireland and the world wars that also came...

https://descendingthemountain.org/ Descending the Mountain is monks on acid. I’ve never taken acid or magic mushrooms and I’m pretty old, so unlikely to do so now. But I’m not as old as Vanja Palmers, a Zen monk and the central character in the experiment. Palmers took acid in the swinging sixties. He found himself as an incarnation of the Buddha presence in the same way I’d missed the last bus home. It enlarged him. But he stopped taking drugs...

I was nervous, I'll be honest. I was standing in the gym to give a talk to two groups - 5th year & TY years - about not only how important books are today (perhaps even more so now), but also my journey as a writer and my processes. But I had nothing to worry about; after my spiel as to how I became a writer, a very lively Q&A from the students kept me on my toes. And I found their enthusiasm infectious. I was also very honest with them...

This Friday (8th March) sees the start of a brand new Undertakers adventure, 'Dead Reckoning' , featuring Josiah and Archibald, fresh from their Spanish triumph in ' Bring Out Your Dead'. This time, Oakshott and Underwood are facing tough times and difficult choices may need to be made. Can Archibald avoid the Job Centre? Hope you'll join us for another mystery tour with plenty of jokes and jeopardy along the way!

I’d an online meeting yesterday with The Psychic Fairy Queen , Jan Murphy. We share the same publishers. I suppose in a world in which there are synchronicities, Spellbound would publish The Psychic Fairy Queen . I’m just the smelly mate that tagged alone by coincidence, even though there is no such thing as coincidences. If by coincidence you’re reading this then you’ve probably read my book Beastie . That’s a gently nudge. Yes, I’ve read a...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001w9pm/aftersun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftersun We’re all ghosts in someone else’s dream. Here eleven-year old Sophie (Frankie Corio) travels to a Turkish holiday resort with her young father Calum (Paul Mescal). It’s just the two of them. We find out that Calum has split up from Sophie’s mum. This is one of those make and break holidays. She’s becoming a woman and he’s becoming an ex-dad. Sophie...

CARELESS Oops! Got to be Mo, freeze frame. Shit's all the same: but who’s blaming? Rabbit chasing tortoise down a rabbit's trail; in slow motion. Checks and balances for dividends policyholders stake their claim. Cost-effective, from data retrieved; a moment in shock, almost in Disbelief, this sensitivity vocal mute, spinning a sigh of relief. Considering the source of choice, of course. Since the damage has been done, flashes of urgency take A...

The Past, Present, and Future Living with yourself: Where the past calls, its presence; A block of thin ice, under the future sun wasted; We borrow the past: though it never lasts. This is you, and this is life; unlived in this forgiveness, are you who you want to be? Can't you see? Everybody has problems: it's how one lives, and deals with them. This much is true. Ones on the path to follow. Listening two the murmurs of angles: The world we...

Kerry Hudson makes the personal universal. She’s forty and having a baby in a maternity hospital in Prague, while the country, indeed the world has shut down due to the Covid 19 virus. She has a section and a wee boy who is perfect in every way. Her partner, Peter is waiting for her and they take their baby back to their rented apartment in the city centre. End of story. That’s the newborn part. Kerry Hudson doesn’t usually do happy endings...

I don't know if you've ever tried converting your Kindle books into print editions but I wouldn't recommend it if you're aiming for a peaceful and tranquil existence. Battling with the idiosyncracies of MS Word is enough to send you over the edge and that's before we get to the joys of dealing with Amazon's Cover Creator software! However, I do know that a lot of people prefer print editions to Kindle versions and I can quite see why. Therefore...