“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

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Better Red Than Dead

Florida Keys.com hosts a rather nice piece on Key West writers, ‘Key West by the book’, during the course of which they profile the Florida wing of the Irish crime writers diaspora, Michael Haskins. Quoth Carol Shaughnessy:
Haskins’ crime thriller CHASIN’ THE WIND, starring journalist Liam Michael ‘Mad Mick’ Murphy, was published in March 2008 and has earned excellent reviews. It’s a spicy conch chowder flavoured with dashes of small-town politics, Cuban intrigue, neurotic federales and island attitude.
  “I created Mick Murphy on a jogging track to keep my mind off my sore legs and burning lungs,” said Haskins. “I gave him my final two vices – Irish whiskey and cigars –and I gave him red hair because I wanted him to be Irish, and nothing says Irish like red hair.”
Erm, Michael? Try red lemonade (right). Quoth the Wiki elves:
“Red lemonade is one of the most popular mixers used with spirits in Ireland, particularly whiskey, including Paddy, Jameson and Southern Comfort … Popular urban myths include: Red lemonade only exists in Ireland as the chemical used to make it red is banned elsewhere in the world. The contention of the myth is that the chemical in it is carcinogenic and banned in all other EU countries.”
So there you have it. Michael? Were Liam Murphy truly ‘mad’, he’d be drinking his Jameson with an allegedly carcinogenic chaser …

4 comments:

Josh Schrank said...

Wait... are you serious? They drink whiskey mixed with lemonade in Ireland??? Seriously? Lemonade? GV, you have to be pulling our leg on this one... NO one would purposely do that, would they??

Anonymous said...

Red lemonade...

I can't find an acceptable substitute in the US. Nothing tastes anywhere near the same.

Josh Schrank said...

Ice. I C E is the only acceptable thing to put in whiskey (and even that is frowned upon if you want my oh so humble opinion). There's a reason you pay 150 dollars for an 18 year old whiskey... to taste it!

I think I'm moving to Scotland.

Declan Burke said...

Red lemonade ... hmmm, refreshing. And sickly-sweet. And sticky. It's like liquid candy-floss. Hmmmmm ... Cheers, Dec