Aiden O Reilly
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London Trip

August kicked off with a mini-reading-tour of London with Mike McCormack. A huge thanks to Anthony Cartwright for instigating the idea, and for interviewing us both nights.

Mike & I read from our respective books Solar Bones and Greetings, Hero. Anthony himself has a new novel Iron Towns … “Once the furnace heart of industrial England, now the valley is home only to fading dreams.”

So August 2nd we met up at fabled Bookseller Crow-on-the-Hill in Crystal Palace. “Twee, kowtowing, conventional it ain’t,” it says on their website. More than a bookshop, Crow-on-the-Hill is an independent force on the books scene – they even hold writing classes there. Big thanks to Jonathan and staff there.

Crow on the Hill with Mike McCormack and Anthony Cartwright Anthony Cartwright on the left. None of us gave much thought to photographs, so this is the only shot from Crow … and unfortunately only Mike’s knee is in it.

Next night the three of us descended on the Quaker Bookshop, Friends House, Euston road. Different crowd, different atmosphere, different conversation. McCormack sparked an animated discussion about the underappreciated role of engineers in shaping the world. There were also some words about the largely-forgotten tradition of Irish gothic fiction.

Quaker Bookshop with Mike McCormack and Anthony CartwrightMike McCormack reading at the Quaker bookshop.

Quaker Bookshop with Mike McCormack and Anthony CartwrightMyself reading.

And the day after that, I headed up to Norwich for a pre-launch event of The End at UEA’s Enterprise centre. Fifteen stories inspired or sparked off by fifteen of Nicolas Ruston’s scratch paintings. This is The End my friends. And it comes with a black wax seal.Unthank Books Nicolas Ruston The End

Brought out by Unthank Books who are a powerhouse of extraordinary fiction and bring out a semi-annual state-of-the-art of UK short fiction. They call it the Unthology series, and Unthology 8 came out recently.

Selected Posts

  • Backstory of a book
    2019-02-22
  • Stinging Fly Wheldon essay
    2017-07-24
  • The Blocks by Karl Parkinson
    2016-10-02
  • London Trip
    2016-09-05
  • Honest Ulsterman interview
    2016-02-29
  • Greetings, Hero launch Hodges Figgis
    2014-11-21

Selected pages

  • Debut Book
  • Publications
  • Writers' Workbench at Block T

Crucial

  • . .
  • Asylum books
  • Buy the book at Kennys
  • Daniel Seery
  • David Mohan
  • Djelloul Marbrook
  • Gorse magazine
  • Slava Nesterov Artist
  • The Penny Dreadful
  • The road to publication
  • The Short Review
  • The Short Review
  • Unthology

Other links

  • . .
  • Karl Parkinson's The Blocks
  • Unthology 4 review
  • Wandering minstrel Larry Beau

What I'm up to

  • Buy the book at Kennys
  • Examiner review
  • Irish Times / Ashley Stokes
  • Irish Times Q+A Irish Times Q+A
  • The road to publication

Recent posts

  • Hangdog Souls by Marc Joan
  • Writers’ Workbench, Block T Dublin 8
  • New writing course at Crumlin College
  • Human Wishes / Enemy Combatant Human Wishes / Enemy Combatant
  • The Guiltless Bystander – short story collection from the late David Wheldon
  • GIGANTIC by Ashley Stokes GIGANTIC by Ashley Stokes

Quotation

The Tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction