“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Sunday, May 20, 2007

We Like To Call Her Elsa: Siobhan Dowd Crowned Sunday Times Literary Lion

Three cheers, two stools and a resounding huzzah for Siobhan Dowd (right), nominated a 'literary lion for the future' in yesterday's Sunday Times on the basis of A Swift Pure Cry, which also scooped the Eilis Dillon award at last week's CBI Bisto Book of the Year Awards. The novel is set in Ireland in the 1980s and based on the unsolved 'Kerry babies' case and the tragic death of Ann Lovett, an Irish teenager who died giving birth in squalid circumstances. See Siobhan in person at the Children's Books Ireland Summer School for Adults on May 26th and 27th, where she's scheduled to give a talk on "Notions of Nationhood" at Sunday's closing session in Pearse Street Library, Dublin 2. Or you could just sit there and read an extract from the novel. Don't worry, we won't judge you ...

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