Alice McDermott: ‘Do we look with Graham Greene’s limited vision at such women? Maybe they’re more interesting than they seem’
Author’s latest novel, Absolution, came as an epiphany about just how difficult it is to absolve the past
Graham Greene
‘We in England are not a grown-up country ... So how about getting some grown-up priorities?’
Stuart Maconie is proud of his country. But after travelling it to write The Full English, he’d like it to focus on being happy, healthy and progressive
Andy Warhol: Profound artist, affectless hero, subversive icon
Warhol is set to eclipse Picasso with a $200m sale of Marilyn Monroe portrait, breaking records
Bette Davis eyes mesmerise in New York photography auction
Sotheby’s sale features Victor Skrebneski photograph of Davis billed as her ‘favourite’
A Lonely Man: How far should you go to write a great novel?
Chris Power’s clever debut novel on the sacrifices needed to create good art
Roddy Doyle: ‘My unpublished first novel was sh*te’
He knew this because, when he started writing The Commitments, he knew it was good
Retracing an 80-year-old journey along the river Shannon
Richard Hayward’s travel book gave a unique insight into rural Ireland of the 1930s
Tenet review: Is Christopher Nolan’s film good enough to save cinema from Covid-19?
It has the makings of a gung-ho entertainment, but It’s hard to work out what’s happening
What kinds of films will we watch in the post Covid-19 era?
Stories will need to establish whether they are set before, during or after the pandemic
How a Democrat might widen the US-China feud
US Politics: Trump could be better than high-minded idealists at containing Beijing
Dominic Cummings tries to reinvent politics now that Brexit is ‘done’
Boris Johnson’s adviser will need all his drive and abrasive style to enact an ambitious agenda
It is rare to hear anybody arguing for the inherent inferiority of popular fiction
Tóibín’s error when discussing the prose in genre fiction was to move from ‘I just get bored’ to ‘it’s blank, it’s nothing’
Doll’s house sells for ‘mad’ price of €48,000 at Kilkenny auction
The 1810 mahogany house, once owned by Vivien Greene, had guide price of €3,000-€4,000
McIlroy feels the weight of the past on a slight return to Portrush
Sideline Cut: The Northern Irishman struggled to reconnect with his 16-year-old self
Dolls’ houses: it’s a small world at Fonsie Mealy Castlecomer sale
A collection of dolls’ houses once owned by writer Graham Green’s wife Vivien are to be sold along with miniature furniture
Cape May review: Desire and betrayal in 1950s New Jersey
Chip Creek’s vibrant debut puts two innocent newly-weds in a place where anything goes
Fashionable exit: The separation of technology and style
The trend of marrying new gadgets with luxury clothing may already be over
A Private War: Marie Colvin lived the war correspondent cliche
Review: The honkingly unsubtle dialogue is not worthy of Rosamund Pike’s steely focus
Achill Island beach that reappeared in 2017 disappears again
Storm deposited Dooagh sand back after 30 years but beach now washed away again
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: Groundbreaking book changed the view of first World War
In a new introduction to All Quiet, historian Norman Stone argues the brutality of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel changed perceptions about the war
From Notre Dame to Haji Ali Dargah Mosque, a parade of holy places in fiction
Since Chaucer there has been a rich tradition of writers inspired by religious buildings
Michael Jackson at Lugalla: He asked for ‘the portrait of the freaky-looking man with the frizzy hair’ to be taken down
Portrait-painter Anthony Palliser on his friendship with Garech Browne, halcyon days at Luggala and his famous Irish subjects
Tangerine by Christine Mangan: debut thriller tries to do too much
Morocco in the 1950s is a captivating setting for this uneven but admirably sinister novel
What’s better than one long-lost Achill beach returning? A second one
Achill Tourism hopes the restored Ashleam beach will offer similar windfall to Dooagh beach
Wind River: Snowy noir on a Native American reservation
A strong sense of place elevates this procedural above the norm
Sands of time return Achill beach 30 years after it washed away
Ocean deposits thousands of tons of sand at Dooagh, recreating the strand
London Letter: David Hockney a rare Brexiteer among British cultural giants
Most British writers today are Remainers. Which side would past literary giants take?
Don’t call Trump a gaslighter: he’s just an inveterate liar
The US president is not slyly trying to alter our perception of reality – he’s just a fibber
Visual Art: David Hockney’s Belfast show is modest in scale but ambitious in scope
MAC exhibition, a first for Ireland, is a fine collection with a focus on drawing
The original Jaws resurfaces in Sligo
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the auction house . . . A first edition of Jaws and a drawing by its author are snapped up
Book collecting: ‘People get a feeling for a book and they must have it’
‘First Editions’ in Dublin’s Ballsbridge is a popular destination for book lovers
Review | Every Time A Friend Succeeds Something Inside Me Dies: The Life of Gore Vidal, by Jay Parini
A friend and fan unpicks the complicated life of one of one of America’s finest writers
Former U2 manager Paul McGuinness: Cracking crime on the Côte d’Azur
Paul McGuinness has turned to TV, joining forces with John Banville and Neil Jordan to make a crime series based on the French Riviera
The ‘Tablet’ has given Catholics a voice for 175 years
Daniel O’Connell plays a valuable part in the journal’s rich and enduring history
Authors on Africa, from Heart of Darkness to The Heart of the Matter
For Africa Day, Eileen Battersby selects 13 classic novels set in Africa but written by outsiders, including several Irish authors
Northern Ireland noir: ‘Bits of the past are still floating around in the darkness’
Anthony Quinn’s Celcius Daly crime novels will change the way you look at rural Armagh
The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson: More Butch Cassidy than Le Carré
Spy thriller is a labour of loyalty to the underrated and original Johnson
Six terrible things you must do in college in your first year
If you’re here for a degree, you’re in the wrong place. College is all about having fun and learning about yourself
Assured practitioner of the classic English murder mystery
PD James: August 3rd, 1920 - November 27th, 2014
Film-maker Richard Attenborough dies aged 90
Oscar-winner directed ‘Gandhi’, ‘Cry Freedom’ and ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’
Nazi spy who could have changed course of D-Day
Paul Fidrmuc’s message on final Operation Overlord details ignored by Berlin handlers
Harlan Coben’s cliffhanger chapters add chutzpah
A round-up of the best new crime thrillers, including books by Sinéad Crowley, Jakob Arjouni, Erin Kelly and Mark Billingham
What a character: writers in fiction
With the Dublin Writers Festival kicking off this week, here are 10 great books with writers as their subject
The torture never ends
Thousands of survivors of torture live in Ireland. We talk to three of them, from Uganda, Zimbabwe and Northern Ireland
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