A Hosting: Interviews with Irish Writers 1991-2026

A beautifully put together nostalgic read.

What a beautifully put together nostalgic read. So much so, that I’ve started digging into my old favourites again and more than that, it is a beautiful book. I can’t recommend it enough.

Martin Doyles’ A Hosting – Irish Writers 1991-2026

Thank you very much for sending to me a copy of Martin Doyles’ A Hosting – Irish Writers 1991-2026, and a signed copy at that. I ordered the book, swiftly, after telling an Australian acquaintance that throughout the last 400 years Irish writers have been pre-eminent in English literature; and then I realised I was fairly ignorant of recent Irish authors, knowing more of their work through filmed adaptations rather than through the words on the page – love at seven degrees of separation. Martin Doyles’ book has introduced me to many writers. How had I never read Anna Burns The Milkman (magnificent) until now? Many of the books Doyle mentions are no longer in Australian bookshops but I’ve found them through on-line sites. What a splendid spread of interviews alphabetically arranged from Banville to Toibin. (As my surname is Young I don’t in fact like alphabetic lists generally, as I have always been placed last for both treats and for interviews). However the list helps me make sense of the duplication of surnames: the O’Connors, the Barrys and the Macs. I’ve been slowly working my way through The Hosting, one interview every few days, starting with John Banville (of whom I have read Dr Copernicus and Kepler, quite unlovely examinations of humanity, and The Untouchable) knowing that by the end of the year I’ll arrive at Toibin of whom I’ve read many more. Doyles’ book is a joy to read, slowly: incisive writing full of passages to remember or quote, and then to re-read the page: a wonderful sense of place and of the person answering the questions. Even when I haven’t known the writer being interviewed I feel I am sitting nearby, listening. In fact, until now, I’ve by-passed Maeve Binchy but having been introduced I will now look to like if looking liking move. The best introduction he’s made for me is Claire Keegan’s Small Things, a wonderful gift, beauty, sensitivity and humanity. I’ve found it interesting to compare a movement in Irish writing that is similar with one taking place in Australian literature – a movement away from examining the heroic colonial past and its battle with the environment to a focus on current issues. Aboriginal voices are speaking loud and clear, forcing away the self-righteousness of white Australians, seeing all our unloveliness, rather than focusing on the heroic Anzac and Britain’s injustices: we now finally look at the atrocities we ourselves have perpetrated, and see that for many we are “the other. As an afterthought, thank you to Lilliput for the cover illustration of the The Táin. Army massing, by Louis le Broquy. I knew nothing of this artist, showed a copy of Doyle’s book to an Irish neighbour, and through discussions with him have been introduced to Thomas Kinsella’s translation of Táin Bó Cúailnge, quite a move away from the Rosemary Sutcliff retelling that I knew in childhood. So, in summary of a long-winded response to your question: thank you for a very interesting book, for the speed in which it reached Australia, and for the hours of reading it will lead to. Unfortunately I will not be able to see a second volume in the year 2056. Sincerely Denise Young

Delightful content though some disappointment for the obvious lacunae.