The Writing Irish: Irish Authors in Their Own Words

“Indisputably Ireland’s most talented and prolific interviewer.” — Irish Daily Mail

The Writing Irish is an anthology of in-depth interviews with some of the island’s leading literary luminaries.

This wide-ranging collection of 18 subjects includes several of Ireland’s most critically acclaimed novelists: Jennifer Johnston, Sebastian Barry, John Boyne, Emma Donoghue, Donal Ryan, Joseph O’Connor, Pat McCabe, and Dermot Healy, who was described as a Celtic Hemingway.

There’s two entire chapters dedicated to the many candid discussions O’Toole enjoyed with the late Irish-American author JP Donleavy, whose book The Ginger Man was selected 99th out of the Modern Library’s Best 100 Novels of the 20th Century. As the great man himself quipped, “I guess that’s better than a kick in the arse!”

The eclectic collection also includes best-selling authors Deirdre Purcell, Derek Landy and Lee Dunne, who held the dubious honor of being Ireland's most banned novelist.

The Writing Irish has a posthumously published lengthy Q&A with the critically acclaimed poet Leland Bardwell and a rare personal interview with the two-term, sitting Irish President Michael D. Higgins.

O’Toole also enjoyed fascinating exchanges with Brendan Behan’s biographer Ulick O’Connor and Ian Gibson, whose authoritative tomes on Lorca and Salvador Dalí have seen him hailed as “the creator of modern biography in Spain.”

“O’Toole specialises in in-your-face interviews.”— Sunday Independent

Jason O’Toole is frequently hailed as the finest interviewer of his generation. He is a columnist with the Irish Sunday Mirror and a music writer for the Irish Daily Mirror. The Writing Irish is his ninth book.