Celtic

Stories about the power of stories are an easy sell; in part, I think, because they subtly ennoble the producer and the consumer of those stories, shedding a glow of valour on the profession of the former and chosen leisure pursuit of the latter. Ferdia Lennon’s debut novel, Glorious Exploits, is very much a story about the power of stories – and the spiritual and emotional succour they give – though, fortunately, too much of a clever one to fall entirely into the mode of blithe self-congratulation.It is 412BC, the…

Why do we read historical fiction? Is it because we love the brutal simplicity of our past? If so, the opening chapter of Tim Pears’s novel is all you could want – a bravura set piece built around a tense encounter between a Roman legion and a posse of warriors in what is now south Wales. The tribe leader hands over his daughter Olwen to the Roman governor as a kind of hostage bride before thundering off with his warriors. If you were going to film it, you’d call Ridley Scott. But that night Olwen runs away with the…

I first met Shane MacGowan, whose funeral is today , in the late 1990s, way after the glory days with The Pogues. I’d see him around town at various functions and gigs, always with his partner, Victoria Mary Clarke, always sat on their own, no one bothering with them. Although emanating a dark charisma, he looked tired and sad to me. There appeared to be a cloud of depression and lonesomeness above him, even when surrounded by well-wishers and hangers-on.So one night I went up and introduced myself, and we just got on. It…

Back in the 80s, the 4AD record label was synonymous with a certain ineffable otherness. Its albums had beautiful covers, designed by Vaughan Oliver, and inside those covers was music routinely described as “ethereal”. 4AD meant taste and taste meant 4AD.Tom Fischer, a young Swiss man from a village outside Zurich, dreamed about his music one day appearing on 4AD. Dead Can Dance, who were signed to the label, were one of his favourite bands. His own music was extraordinary – string and horn sections clashing with electric…