“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

Monday, April 28, 2008

The Screaming Blue Memies …

Dangblasted memes, eh? Crimefic Reader tags the Grand Vizier for ‘six random things about you’ over at It’s A Crime! and demands we play ball lest a black hole (right) develop in GV’s ceremonial nethergarments and consume the known universe. Gah! Anyhoo, herewith be the rules:
Link to the person that tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about you in a blog post.
Tag six people in your post.
Let each person know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the taggee know your entry is up.
Righty-o, on with the flummery:
Six Random Facts About The Grand Vizier
1. Within a nine-month period between 1986 and 1987, the formerly dynamic Grand Viz managed to miss penalties in two sports (hurling and soccer) in consecutive All-Ireland finals. These occurred at the age of 16 and 17, respectively. Both finals were lost. In retrospect, the moments were (koff) marvellous character builders.
2. The Grand Vizier’s desert island novel would be PETER PAN by J.M. Barrie.
3. The Grand Viz has a tattoo of Wile E. Coyote on his left shoulder, on the basis that Wile E. is much, much funnier than Samuel Beckett’s existentialist mantra, “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”
4. If the Grand Vizier could choose to live in any place and at any time in history, it would be on any of the Cycladic Greek islands during cocktail hour.
5. The Grand Vizier’s middle names are ‘James’ and ‘Henry’. Funnily enough, he’s never been too impressed by Henry James’ novels.
6. In 15 years working as a freelance journalist, the Grand Vizier’s favourite interview was the one he conducted with Leonard Cohen, who was as dryly funny, self-deprecating and Homerically tolerant of a blithering young fanboy as you could expect a living genius to be.
And now - trumpet parp, maestro - for the taggees / fellow bloggers. Apologies in advance to: Gerard Brennan; Shawn Patrick Bagley; Critical Mick; Jen Jordan; Sinead Gleeson; and Brian McGilloway.

7 comments:

Jen Jordan said...

I did this meme when first tagged by the incendiary Nathan Singer. But I have more random facts, believe me.

Jen wants to read your Leonard Cohen interview soooooo very much...

Anonymous said...

Well I hope you're happy now.

http://www.sineadgleeson.com/blog/2008/04/28/return-of-the-meme/

Josh Schrank said...

Not to get nit-picky,(Okay you caught me, I'm getting nit-picky) but that picture is more to the point of the earth for some reason going super nova (if a planet could do that) rather than a black hole. I think the reason they are called black holes is because, well.... they're black. :D

Brian McGilloway said...

Cheers Dec

I'll try my best - strange to think that when you must have been interviewing Leonard Cohen when he was last here, I was too young to go to his concert, but my dad managed to meet him and got his autograph for me. That might just be my first random fact as well!
Brian

Declan Burke said...

Cheers, folks - and may this be the Last of the Memes. Josh? I hear your pain. And I'd have preferred a pic of a singularity with perhaps just a frisson of an event horizon for contrast. But these days, my time is even more compressed than it is at the heart of a black hole. Cheers, Dec

Anonymous said...

Wile E Coyote??? Your having a laff. Road Runner is the biz!


Haydo

Gerard Brennan said...

Went ahead and did this six fact thingy.

gb