A documentary on the incredible Hubert Butler will air this Tuesday, 8 August on RTÉ One at 10.35 pm. Hubert Butler was one of the main reasons that Antony Farrell decided to establish The Lilliput Press in 1984, after discovering that Butler’s work was out of print. “Hubert Butler was one of the most extra ordinary Irish writers of the past century, as old as the century. He was aged eight-three when it was my privilege to meet him – one of a small handful to whom the word genius could be attached. We worked closely together on three of his five volumes of essays at his home in Kilkenny and my own in Westmeath….

In honour of our latest reissue, John Broderick’s An Apology for Roses, we’re revisiting another of his works, The Pilgrimage, for this month’s Friday Archive. Here’s why it’s worth your while! It was banned in 1961 by the Censorship Board. They always banned the good ones. It sold over 100,000 copies in the U.S.A. as The Chameleons.  It combines an illicit affair with a lovely… … Pilgrimage to Lourdes! What could go wrong? It’s also got a juicy small-town plot (see below) Wealthy Julia Glynn’s husband is seriously ill, and is being tended to by his nephew, Jim, with whom Julia is having an affair. The parish priest advocates a pilgrimage to Lourdes, just as Julia begins to receive anonymous letters detailing her infidelities. As the day…