“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

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The Embiggened O # 297: Which Witch? Bookwitch!

We’ve never been compared to Roddy Doyle before, possibly because he’s a devilishly handsome cove who happens to write bestsellers, but the Bookwitch – aka Ann Giles – has remedied that omission in no uncertain fashion, to wit:
“I’ve just read The Big O. It’s rather like The Commitments, hardboiled … The Big O is about an interesting group of people, who are all more or less into crime of some sort. It’s not so much black and white, as various shades of grey. But they are very likeable, even though they use the f-word most of the time … I’m not going to give away the plot, which centres on kidnapping, but I can tell you it all builds up to a hilarious ending.”
Bleedin’ rapid, as Jimmy Rabbitte might – and in fact does – say himself. Why not hitch a ride on a broomstick all the way over to Bookwitch, folks, and tell Ann we said she’s the sweedest Swede we know …

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hah, you think I'm blonde and beautiful! What a mistake. Think more along the lines of what I call myself. The second half of the blog name.

Mr Doyle handsome? Was it an impostor I met a couple of years ago? Very charming and interesting, mind you.

Declan Burke said...

Ann? On Crime Always Pays, we're all blonde and beautiful on the inside, even if we don't want to be ... and what we were trying to say was, you're the sweetest Swede we know ... but we though it might be funny if we said 'sweedest'. Ahem. We'll get our cloaks ...