Contemporary British & Irish fiction - Sharon Monteith

Whose first attempts at writing were 'a bit like my first attempts at masturbation, bitter, sly and tainted with some notion of sin?' Who created her most popular character purely 'to get up the nose of another character', and who struggles to find the right voice for 'the poor bare vision that I harbour'? Whether discussing how to 'cherish the unfashionable and eccentric,' how to capture 'the cosmic dimension of what it is to be human,' or the importance of 'making art in the teeth of death,' the best-selling writers interviewed for Contemporary British and Irish Fiction talk candidly about life, the unconscious and the craft of writing and much more besides.



A critical introduction traces contemporary British and Irish literary cartography focusing on roots and region, dialect and dialogue, national identity and the transnational context, myth and religion, and a favourite national pastime: bemoaning the end and celebrating the resurrection of the novel. Each interview is framed by biographical information and suggestions for critical reading.



Pat Barker

A.S. Byatt

Roddy Doyle

Alan Hollinghurst

Hanif Kureishi

Bernard MacLaverty

Michael Roberts

Barry Unsworth

Fay Weldon

Irvine Welsh



These writers give us an edgy and fascinating masterclass in narrative. Contemporary British and Irish Fiction: Novelists in Interview is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary writing.