The Passionate Shepherd – Leontia Flynn’s These Days
Friends were surprised when I said that my narrowboat wouldn’t prove popular with the ladies. ‘What’, they asked ‘about the …
Tag Archives: review
Breathless – David Morley’s Enchantment
Gerard Manley Hopkins was snotty about Oxford’s outskirts. In Duns Scotus’s Oxford, he reserves his praise for the ivory towers …
All you need is love – Mark Doty’s Theories and Apparitions
My childhood soft toy, a blue waistcoated Peter Rabbit, is a mess. You might expect him to be threadbare after …
For the poor and beaten down – David Caddy’s Man in Black
Perhaps the little black dress epitomises haute couture because black is the perfect foil for a dirty great swag of …
In vino veritas – Matthew Stewart’s Tasting Notes
Only someone who follows no football can understand the feelings of confusion and fear that accompany the convergence of their …
Belfast Child – Leontia Flynn’s Drives
I was standing at the counter of a Belfast tourist office watching as a biro was waved over a map. …
Howl, howl, howl! Paul Durcan’s Praise in Which I Live and Move and Have my Being
You lash out at the strange and frightening; you lack the ability to control your bowels; you’re helpless and depend upon …
No Gypsy Wedding – David Morley’s The Invisible Kings
Donkeys were still hitched to lamp-posts in County Limerick in the ’80s and our village was the sort of place …
Kissing a Saint’s Stomach Lining – Adam Thorpe’s Voluntary
The strangest thing I’ve kissed is a section of stomach lining belonging to the Blessed Ralph Sherwin. He’s an old …
Looking at the emperor’s new clothes – Glyn Maxwell’s On Poetry
Buy On Poetry from Oberon Books A school friend grasped counterpoint intuitively and had a penchant for writing fugues. He …
Poor Rude Lines 