Here’s a collection of photographs I took on a walk around Killarney, in Co Kerry, Ireland.
Continue reading “Photography: A walk in Killarney, Ireland”
Writer, Journalist and Photographer
Here’s a collection of photographs I took on a walk around Killarney, in Co Kerry, Ireland.
Continue reading “Photography: A walk in Killarney, Ireland”
Nearly seven years ago, and I really can’t believe it was that long, I began my degree at NUI Galway in Ireland. I chose Galway for one reason only: I could study creative writing there. As someone who had been interested in words, books and literature ever since I could remember, it seemed a natural choice.
Continue reading “Why I studied creative writing at university”
The National Library of Ireland has launched an exhibition of their collection of photographs documenting the events and locations of the Easter Rising in 1916.
Continue reading “National Library launches Easter Rising photo exhibition”
Shakespeare’s Globe in London is going all out this year in honour of the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. Film adaptation screenings along the South Bank, a world tour of Hamlet, and a season by a new artistic director: it’s certainly going to be a year to remember.
This is a round-up of 10 places I think are incredible and would love to see during my lifetime.
Continue reading “10 countries I want to visit in my lifetime”
These are my pick of the five best books of the year.
The new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which opens in London’s West End this summer, has cast actress Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger, alongside Jamie Parker as Harry Potter and Paul Thornley as Ron Weasley.
Continue reading “Harry Potter play casts Noma Dumezweni as Hermione”
To mark the 240th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, here are my top 10 favourite quotes from her books and personal correspondence.
Haworth is a rural village on a steep hill, surrounded by fields of heather and a bitter breeze. The parsonage, where the Brontë sisters grew up and lived, is easily the biggest building there. It sits by tall trees and crooked gravestones, and is filled with remnants of the family’s lives; it does feel like they’ve just popped out for a walk on the moor. Continue reading “Visiting Haworth, the home of the Brontës”
With nearly a million followers on Twitter and on first-name terms with one of the most iconic authors in the world, Evanna Lynch from Co Louth has made a name for herself as one of Ireland’s great acting exports.
Continue reading “Evanna Lynch: ‘Harry Potter has only opened doors for me’”
In one sense, and in great measure, to be peculiar is to be original, and than the true originality there is no higher literary virtue.
I interviewed the super editor/writer/all-around book aficionado Claire Hennessy about her job at one of Ireland’s major publishing houses, what she looks for in YA submissions and her best advice for aspiring authors.
Would you not like to try all sorts of lives? One is so very small.
But that is the satisfaction of writing: one can impersonate so many people.
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
I still think of Great Expectations as the greatest novel ever written with Magwitch, Estelle, Miss Havisham and Pip Pirrip, Dickens’s most brilliant creations. I’ve read the Dickens canon three times in my life and it’s amazing how these books have become a mirror for me, showing me how I’ve changed.
His attitude to women, for example, his sentimentality, his humour… I react differently each time I come to them… And that, of course, is the power of the greatest literature. Every time you come back to it, it’s never quite the same.”
– Anthony Horowitz
Original speech for the National Literacy Trust: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/campaigns/anthony_horowitz_keynote_speech
In response to today’s Faber Academy ‘QuickFic’ 250 word writing prompt – “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities” – I wrote a short story. Continue reading “Short story: ‘Overcome’”
Now that I’ve graduated from my masters, I’ve had more time to focus on my creative work.
But how do you turn off that editorial side of your brain? As a journalist, I’ve become accustomed to writing and editing almost simultaneously.
Continue reading “Where does creative inspiration come from?”