“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

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Meet Dave, He’s A Goliath

A veritable giant in the world of Irish crime fiction, aka Dave Torrans of Belfast’s crime bookshop No Alibis (right, with Stuart Neville and James Ellroy), goes into hospitality overdrive next week. First up, John Connolly, who is currently promoting the new Charlie Parker novel, THE WHISPERERS:
On Monday 3rd May at 7:30 PM, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and No Alibis Bookstore will be hosting a screening and talk with author John Connolly in the Oh Yeah Centre in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter. Tickets, priced £5 each, are now available from CQAF and from No Alibis.
  Nice. Then, on Wednesday, May 5th, Dave and No Alibis hosts Declan Hughes and Brian McGilloway, both of whom will be reading from new works, CITY OF LOST GIRLS and THE RISING, respectively, with the gig kicking off at 7pm …
  And as if that wasn’t a busy enough schedule, Dave will be in Dublin on Thursday, May 6th, to take part in a seminar at the Royal Irish Academy (there’s posh) entitled ‘Writing and the Possible in 2010’, sitting in on a panel that ‘will focus on reading and the ways in which we read literary texts in Ireland in 2010’. The seminar is free, but if you want to get along you’ll need to register here
  To book tickets for the Connolly and Hughes / McGilloway gigs, contact No Alibis on +44 (0)28 9031 9601.

4 comments:

Paul D Brazill said...

No, but I really did think it was the bloke from One Foot In The Grave in the middle. Cue ...

Declan Burke said...

Actually, squire, now you mention it ... it's uncanny.

Cheers, Dec

Anonymous said...

Met John's UK PR lady yesterday. She recommended the same book as you did. Am I that easy to pigeonhole? He's coming to Preston. Do I want to go?

Declan Burke said...

Pigeonhole a bird of paradise, Ms Witch?

I'd imagine the PR lady's recommendation says more about THE BOOK OF LOST THINGS than anything else. And yes, I'd say you'd have a whale of a time at John's reading, he's terrific value for money ...

Cheers, Dec