City of Books

Martina Devlin talks books with people who believe stories matter. And that you can never have too many books.

Richard Ford is listing his failures. He wanted to be a lawyer in the US Marines. That didn’t work out. He wanted to be "a lawyer, period”. That didn’t work out. He became a writer – that certainly counts as a success for the Pulitzer Prize winner.

Even so, between novels and short story collections he sometimes thought he was through with fiction and imagined doing other jobs.

But he kept going, he tells Martina Devlin in the City of Books podcast for Dublin UNESCO City of Literature. And that’s been the case for half a century.

Although when he’s between books, he claims to “flounce” around finding reasons not to work.

Sorry For Your Trouble is his latest book, a short story collection published by Bloomsbury.

Doyenne of domestic noir Liz Nugent’s work has an army of fans including Graham Norton, who describes her latest hit Our Little Cruelties as part rollercoaster, part maze.

Here, Liz talks about coping with pain stemming from a childhood brain haemorrhage, and overcoming challenges large and small – such as typing all her work one-handed: “Shakespeare wrote all his plays one-handed with a feather,” she says.

She also reveals the identity of her favourite fictional antihero (clue: he’s sexy but mean). Produced and presented by Martina Devlin with music by Daragh Dukes. More about Liz’s books here:

The Maamtrasna murders were sparked by a blood feud in a remote part of 19th century Ireland. A family of five was killed by neighbours - but the trial proved to be just as notorious as the murders. It was held in English and some of the defendants, who were from Connemara, could not speak the language.

Professor Margaret Kelleher of University College Dublin and Mr Justice Peter Kelly, president of Ireland's High Court, discuss the case and political context in Dublin's historic Green Street courthouse, scene of the trial.

Presented and produced by author and journalist Martina Devlin

For more on Margaret Kelleher’s book The Maamtrasna Murders: Language, Life and Death in Nineteenth-Century Ireland follow the link:

Three Fs have been a consistent part of international bestseller Joanna Trollope's life:

Fiction, family and feminism. She explains why here.

The international bestseller says, “There will always be women who want to stay at home in the kitchen and make jam tarts with the three-year-old, and there will always be women who want to rule the world.”

Which kind is she?

And why does Jane Austen inspire her?

This episode also includes a tribute to poet extraordinaire Eavan Boland from writer Colum McCann.

For more on Joanna Trollope’s latest novel Mum & Dad follow the link https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/joanna-trollope/mum-dad/9781529003383

Marita Conlon-McKenna is the much-loved author of many books for children and adults. They include her children's classic about Ireland's Great Famine, Under The Hawthorn Tree. She talks here about the magic of storytelling, why famine stories continue to grip us and the powerful use of the child's voice in Tatty - the 2020 Dublin One City One Book choice.