“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, September 4, 2007

History: Officially No Longer Bunk

Broadcaster, writer and all-round Renaissance man Sean Moncrieff returns to the fray today, releasing The History of Things through New Island. What’s that scraping sound we hear? Could it possibly be the blurb elves sharpening their quills? Yep, t’would appear so:
“Film director Tomas Dalton returns home to his North Inner City Dublin roots. However, the country he has returned to, with its new-found affluence and glamour, is unrecognisable from the one he left behind. But this version of Ireland has yet to reach Bass Avenue, where the mischievous welcome he receives from the local mob of children quickly grows into something far more sinister. Lost amongst the wreckage of a painful divorce, a chaotic film shoot and the manic advances of a fading Hollywood diva, Tomas is forced to protect the faded trophies of his life. By any means necessary.”
Moncrieff’s previous outing, Dublin, garnered some very nice reviews indeed, to wit: “Moncrieff takes the well-worn images of warm and sleepy Dublin, pulls a plastic bag over their head and executes them,” reckoned the Evening Herald, while the Sunday Independent chipped in with “A telling portrait of smugness and disillusionment, of the festering underbelly of Celtic Tigerland.” Form an orderly queue, people: line-jumpers will be plastic-bagged and executed …

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