Dec
07
2020

Publisher Antony Farrell recollects introducing the late John O’Brien to J.P. Donleavy

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In 1961 J.P. Donleavy published a stage play called Fairytales of New York; this mutated into a 341-page novel released in September 1973 titled A Fairy Tale of New York. On 17 November 1987 Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl, with Steve Lillywhite, produced a single that was to became the most celebrated Christmas song on the planet. In December 2020 a cancel culture, combatted by Nick Cave, bowdlerised its lyrics while Johnny Depp’s documentary film on MacGowan is also being screened. If you google A Fairy Tale of New York, you will find Donleavy’s comically anarchic original novel available as an ebook on the website hosted by The Lilliput Press. When MacGowan visited J.P. Donleavy…

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Adrian Duncan Author Photo
Jun
29
2020

Adrian Duncan scoops inaugural John McGahern Annual Book Prize

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The University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies is delighted to announce that the winner of the inaugural £5,000 John McGahern Annual Book Prize is Adrian Duncan, for his novel, Love Notes from a German Building Site. The Prize judges – University Vice-Chancellor Dame Professor Janet Beer; Chancellor and author of Brooklyn, Colm Tóibín; Professor of Irish literature in English, Frank Shovlin; and The Irish Times fiction reviewer, Sarah Gilmartin – praised the “pitch perfect debut” for its “spare, exact prose”, and how it reveals “what it might mean to be Irish in the 21st Century”. On learning of his success, Adrian Duncan said: “I am very moved and proud to be awarded this wonderful…

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Cover of Finn's Hotel
Jun
16
2020

Bloomsday 2020

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This June 16th, we are celebrating Bloomsday online with a reading from Danis Rose. Danis Rose is editor of the Dublin edition of Ulysses (Lilliput, 1997). He is author of The Index Manuscript (1978), The Lost Notebook (1989), and Ulysses in Genesis. With David Hayman, he edited Volumes 28-63 of The James Joyce Archive (1977-78). He reads ‘Skywards to Stardom’, a section from Finn’s Hotel. Stacey Herbert features as Isolde. Listen here Photo Credits: David Monahan

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Apr
11
2020

The Von Dornburgs and Von A’s of West Cork by Jos Godwin

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A friend and follower of The Lilliput Press chronicled his recent experience with COVID-19, as written about earlier. He here offers another tale from his youth. My very early childhood was spent in a village in West Cork, where my parents made a good living selling everything except their children to tourists. When I was three or perhaps four my hair was blond and my button nose freckled. Most, if not all, of the neighbours were swarthy and Iberian-looking. Nothing to do with Armadas! Much more ancient than that. Down in West Cork it’s a Milesian thing. Locals might ask ‘How’s it going boy?’ but they look like they’ve just popped over from Seville. I…

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Apr
06
2020

C19 blog: A dispatch from the corona front line by Jos Godwin

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A friend and follower of The Lilliput Press chronicles his recent experience with COVID-19. He has given the Press permission to share his story with you all in the hope that it will inform and amuse during these difficult days.   Been cooped up for ages. The Task Force finally called me for testing on Tuesday and I’m almost better. That’s eleven hellish days after I first reported symptoms to the GP and thirteen days after my initial fever etc. kicked in. Ironically for someone like myself with flooded lungs, the air quality is now fabulous! Living near the airport one notices these things. The once-magnificent Northwood demesne across the drive has an atmosphere of…

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Oona Alice Lyons Book Cover
Apr
06
2020

Extract: Oona by Alice Lyons

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Welcome to our Oona virtual book tour! To start the week, we are delighted to present an extract from the book, Oona by Alice Lyons. Read on, or download the extract here – Oona_Extract Oona by Alice Lyons is available for Kindle, for Kobo and from bookshops. 18 In time back when she lived. When she smelled up the car, when her fingers drummed and fingered the fluted-like-pie-crust Buick  steering wheel. When she reached her arm instinctively, braced me in the bench seat beside her every time she hit the brakes in rainy streets. Her presence pulsing, fragrancing the space. Breathwarm car, car where we faced the same way: street signs, lights, suburban streets, Jersey sights…

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Mar
31
2020

‘Are You With Me?’ Author Reading: Kevin Boyle’s defense of Salman Rushdie

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Our Tuesday stop on our ‘Are You With Me?’ virtual book tour is a video reading by author Mike Chinoy. The excerpt describes one of the “world’s greatest organised protests” which Kevin Boyle lead in defense of Salman Rushdie after the fatwā was issued against him in 1989. Initially 1,000 writers and intellectuals from across the globe signed a letter defending the publication of Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. The signatures rose to 12,000 over the next few months. This action put Kevin and the lives of his colleagues at Article 19 at risk. To hear more about this remarkable man, you can purchase Are You With Me? Kevin Boyle and the Rise of the Human Rights…

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Mar
30
2020

Extract: Are You With Me? Kevin Boyle and the Rise of the Human Rights Movement

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Kevin Boyle played  a major role over many years in seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Northern Ireland. One previously unknown initiative involved his effort, with fellow lawyer Francis Keenan, to use the European Commission on Human Rights as a mechanism to seek a negotiated solution to the 1981 IRA hunger strike. That effort is the subject of this excerpt from Are You With Me? Kevin Boyle and the Rise of the Human Rights Movement by former CNN correspondent Mike Chinoy. Kevin Boyle watched the hunger strike crisis with growing dismay.  Sympathetic to the predicament of the prisoners, and disgusted by what he and many others saw as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s intransigence,…

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