Robert McLiam Wilson
Robert McLiam Wilson | |
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![]() Belfast-born author, Robert McLiam Wilson | |
Born | Robert Wilson 24 February 1964 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Occupation | Novelist, journalist |
Language | English |
Education | St Malachy's College; St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
Genre | Crime, Thriller |
Notable works | Ripley Bogle, Eureka Street |
Notable awards | Betty Trask Award; Rooney Prize |
Robert McLiam Wilson (born Robert Wilson, 24 February 1964) [1][2] is a Northern Irish novelist.
Biography
[edit]He was born in the New Lodge district of Belfast and then moved to Turf Lodge and other places in the city.[3]
He attended St Malachy's College and studied English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge;[4] however, he dropped out[5][6] and, for a short time, was homeless.[6] This period of his life profoundly affected his later life and influenced his works.[5]
Wilson moved to Paris where he writes for Charlie Hebdo and Libération.[6] He also writes occasionally for The Guardian, Corriere della Sera and Le Monde.
Work
[edit]McLiam Wilson has written three novels:[2]
- Ripley Bogle (1989)
- Manfred's Pain (1992)
- Eureka Street (1996)
Ripley Bogle is a novel about a homeless man in London. Eureka Street focuses on the lives of two Belfast friends, one Catholic and one Protestant, shortly before and after the IRA ceasefires in 1994. A BBC TV adaptation of Eureka Street was broadcast in 1999.[5]
He is also the author of a non-fiction book about poverty, The Dispossessed (1992),[2] and has made television documentaries for the BBC. His next novel, Extremists, has been postponed again and again.
Critical review
[edit]His work has been described as 'strikingly original'[7] and as 'one of the most influential literary voices to emerge from Northern Ireland since the Troubles began [who has] has challenged the understanding of contemporary Irishness'.[8]
Awards
[edit]In 2003, he was named by Granta magazine as one of 20 "Best of Young British Novelists", despite the fact that he has not published new work in English since 1996.[2]
"Ripley Bogle" won the Rooney Prize and the Hughes Prize in 1989, and a Betty Trask Award and the Irish Book Awards in 1990.[2]
External links
[edit]- Collection of Wilson's columns and articles in Charlie Hebdo (In English).
- The scurrilous lies written about Charlie Hebdo, The Guardian
- The solace of an Australian summer when cricket brought hope and light, The Guardian
References
[edit]- ^ Troubles Archive
- ^ a b c d e "Robert McLiam Wilson". contemporarywriters. Archived from the original on 3 October 2007. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
- ^ "I've always been very anti-IRA and anti-nationalist... but there can't be a comparison with Isis sociopaths". Retrieved 14 January 2017.
- ^ Goodreads: Robert McLiam Wilson (Author of Eureka Street)
- ^ a b c "Eureka Street and me Robert McLiam Wilson has put a lot of himself into Eureka Street, his novel and now TV drama". Evening Standard. 8 September 1999. Retrieved 1 January 2011.[dead link]
- ^ a b c Jarlath Regan (30 January 2016). "Robert McLiam Wilson". An Irishman Abroad (Podcast) (124 ed.). SoundCloud. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
- ^ Farquharson, Danine (2005). "The language of violence in Robert McLiam Wilson's Eureka Street". New Hobernia Review. 9 (4): 65–78. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
- ^ Hicks, Patrick (2008). "The failure of parenting and the success of love in Robert McLiam Wilson's Ripley Bogle and Eureka Street". Irish Studies Review. 16 (2): 131–141. Retrieved 16 November 2023.