I’ve been meaning to read The Shepherd’s Life for some time. Judging by reviews on Amazon, most seemed to love it but a few felt there was too much repititon and there was an over-riding tone of anger and hostility so I was curious to see.
James Rebanks isn’t an ordinary farmer. It seems that he inherited his love of sheep farming from his paternal side and his love of books from his mother, studying in Oxford in his early 20s [...]
Renegade is a historical novel. It looks back to 1788 when young Henry Fulton entered Trinity College. He seems reckless as he agrees to a duel and then falls in love perhaps impetuously. He becomes a Church of Ireland clergyman, meets with Wolfe Tone and is immediately impressed by him and joins the Society of United Irishmen. Wolfe Tone [...]
I was delighted to receive a gift of Donal Ryan’s collection of short stories A Slanting of the Sun as it was definitely on my to-buy list. I’d loved The Spinning Heart and have read it a couple of times. I had commented in my review of Around the Farm Gate that I particularly liked [...]
The Dark and Amongst Women have been on my list to reread for a while as it’s probably close to twenty years since I read them. I picked up a copy of The Barracks recently, John McGahern’s first novel and got around to reading it this week.
Mid century rural Ireland. Reegan is a sergeant, living in a small town barracks, fed up of his superiors, hoping to resign and [...]
Call The Vet starts with Anna Birch on a call to a tricky medical situation with a cow – it calls for a wine bottle (as a tool!), she is splattered with all kinds of gung and because her new abode doesn’t have have hot water, she is forced to rinse off the gunk with sugary warm coffee from her flask before she falls asleep. If anyone is [...]
