Declan Burke: Pleasant Tally Monday

“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, May 31, 2010

Pleasant Tally Monday

Well, the votes are tallied, and the winner has been announced: Derek Landy’s SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT has won the ‘Irish Book of the Decade’ award. No mean feat, when you consider that the novel was up against the likes of John Banville, John Connolly, Anne Enright and Sebastian Barry, to name but a few. And pretty damn amazing, to be frank about it, when you consider that Landy’s novel is a YA title featuring a dead / skeletal private eye. A hat-tip to Irish Publishing News for the nod …

3 comments:

Kevin McCarthy said...: I think my youngest daughter scoured the graveyards and voted on behalf of the dead for Skulduggery. Certainly she voted on behalf of her sister, myself and my wife!

Seriously, my daughter and her classmates love the series. From what little I've read of them (though I've had the plots recounted more than I care to recall)they are far more vigorous and violent (in a good way) than the H Potter novels (for example), which neither of my daughters could abide. Fair play to fellow Fingal writers!

Kevin McCarthy; May 31, 2010 at 5:45 PM
Anonymous said...: My interview with Derek is the most read post on Bookwitch. Very keen fans. The girls all want to audition for the part of Valkyrie in the film.; May 31, 2010 at 11:33 PM
Declan Burke said...: Skulduggery Pleasant was terrific fun, I really enjoyed it ... Haven't caught up with any further episodes, though. Is it worth my while?

Cheers, Dec; June 1, 2010 at 10:31 AM