Search Results for 'John Banville'

RICHARD BEARD, an ‘experimental novelist’ and author of non-fiction, is nothing if not versatile. His books have addressed such subjects as rugby union, grave-robbing, sex changes, Eurodisney, and cigarette addiction.

“ALL GOOD books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”

THE PROGRAMME for the 2012 Cúirt International Festival of Literature will be launched in the Hotel Meyrick, Eyre Square, at 6pm this coming Tuesday.

I am a reader. I usually have two or three books on the go at the same time. A good thriller is one of my basic pleasures, and I tend to read it slowly, picking it up and putting it down after a few chapters. I like the sense of anticipation of what is coming next as I insert a book marker or fold over the corner of a page when I have reached a particularly exciting moment.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

ONE OF the more refreshing delights of bookselling and reading is when a new voice makes itself heard for the first time.

Along with providing ten days of superb entertainment for all the family, this year’s arts festival which has recently drawn to a close, has also lent a hand in boosting the local economy.

The 37th Kilkenny Arts Festival programme is set to entice thousands of people to the city over the next 10 days with a line-up that will challenge all of the senses.

Kilkenny’s first All-Ireland medal is to be auctioned at the end of that month by a Kilkenny auctioneer.

The sixth annual Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend will take place on Achill Island from April 30 to May 2.