I've said it before - yes, I'm monomaniacal - but this recipe for Patatas Bravas is horny devil fare. So horny we eat it as a dinner on its tod. Thick sweet & smoky paprika sauce on crispy oven-baked spuds, toasted cumin seeds, garlicky tomato pulp & yoghurt 😋 www.theguardian.com/food/2023/se....

More zany combinations of #Veg: a roasting tin of quartered baby turnips, chopped leek, garlic, fennel & caraway seeds, salt, harissa, orange peel, olive oil. Roast for 40, stirring every 15. Layer with watercress and dressing of toasted/crushed fennel seeds, orange & lemon juice, s&p, e/virgin oil.

Thank you, Lilliput! Awesome to see the Proofs, even more awesome to read blurbs about your own work 🩻🪞

Rafael Mendes & Aisling Walsh on representation and ethics in writing. Is being close to, enough? How do you write about identities, sexualities, lived experience that are not your own? Where are the lines drawn for/at appropriation against a canon that were 'writers' without an added 'other' label?

The Blessing of the Rags and Happy Stigmata at an alternative #Mass at #DoolinWritersWeekend "We'll heal what ails you"...

Crazy display of [free] food here for #SundayMass at the utterly brilliant #DoolinWritersWeekend The programme is 100% kickass this year, trying my best to get to as much as I can before collapsing into bed every night. Feels like part freaky wedding, part fab festival.

The interview/chat with Roddy Doyle & Elizabeth Reapy was so chill and enthralling. Roddy is so down to earth and sensible, but his honesty is unusual in this lit-climate. He laughed at a terrible review of his first book, spoke about writing as 'labour' and dissed too much editorial interference.

Here at THE LOOK, Ian Maleany's workshop on Filmic Techniques in Written Narrative. #DoolinWritersWeekend

Mary read an incredible essay (a meditation on the state of the world) at #DoolinWritersWeekend last night; the entire audience held its breath. Can't wait for this novel.

Thank you Joyce! I'm reading this story tomorrow night at #DoolinWritersWeekend

Wife on the rocks, instead of whiskey. Proper giant surf waves 🌊 in #Doolin today. Looking forward to kickoff for the writer's festival later. Mary Costello will be reading from new work, a spoken word performance with Abby Oliveira and séance in the attic! #DoolinWritersWeekend

Arrived safely; survived the curly roads. Forgot how gorgeous Hotel Doolin is, and we even got a complimentary bottle of prosecco and Wilde chocolate 🍫 😋

I have been scooped! The very exciting news is that my first novel, Prestige Drama, is preened and prepped and will be coming out in May. I'm biased but I think it's really good and you should buy it. www.thebookseller.com/rights/fleet...

So looking forward to this; delighted to be taking part. I was at the first festival in 2013 - helped shape it - and diligently attended every year up to 2020. So happy it's firmly back on the calendar. A nice scenic drive through the burren today on the way. www.doolinarts.ie/about-1

Ahah! Doolin Writers Weekend is back! Line-up features: Roddy Doyle, Belinda McKeon, Ian Maleney, Sarah Moore Fitzgerald, Abby Oliviera, June Caldwell, filmmaker Tadhg O’Sullivan, comedian Aoife Dunne and musician Branwen. www.tickettailor.com/events/hotel...

Reflected vegetation in the guard light:

In the woods of Göttingen, where my friend Annette lives (Germany):

My very first piece of cnf today in the wonderful @frazzledlit.bsky.social . Please have a read about my cousin, Ashton & if you don't feel like reading, there's an audio of me narrating the piece. Thanks to brilliant editors, Jen and Laura. Check out the issue! www.frazzledlit.com/p/shooting-s...

This film based on my story from Dance Move is now BAFTA longlisted. There was such an incredible group of people, all playing their parts, so that this project actually happened. Just brilliant.

In the 80s I accepted a very generous offer to write an original short story. Only then did I learn that a condition was to include mention of Schweppes Bitter Lemon somewhere in the tale. I pulled out; I was told that Jeffrey Archer then took on the gig

LOVE the sound of this quirky 3-weeker, especially future cake.

Can't believe it is nearly 10 years since David Bowie died and the world started falling apart.

Found the playlist I made around the time A Shock came out, and put it on Tidal. Extraordinary how long ago that was, and how weird that time, how scrambled. Strange years. I should be dead. Going to do one for Dooneen soon. It's the only reason I write to be honest - to do the playlists.

I haven't forgotten my homemade double pesto palmiers or marmite cheddar twists at Xmas, now that I'm on a diet and back [with atrophy] in the pool 🏊‍♂️. The warm crunch, the tanginess, and collapsing filth, will be welcome in my mouth in 50 weeks time.

If anyone wants to read along with me this year, am reading all of Hilary Mantel and Flannery O’Connor in chronological order (roughly 2 books per month) The reading order is up on my blog www.jancarson.co.uk and I’ll be using hashtags #MyYearWithFOC and #MyYearWithHM

Niece-in-law and nephew-in-law having fun in the snow (up North). Here's hoping it makes its way here! ❄️

Great start to the #2026 New Year with this bunch of women in Drimnagh (and an *honourable mention* in the 2026 Calvino Prize for Fabulist Fiction); all that's missing is a cat trying to get into my head. Luck & love to you all. X

So, this year we're doing the 'from scratch' #CornucopiaCookbook #Vegetarian Xmas dinner of *Sweet potato, Spinach & Hazelnuts En Croûte on Parsnip Mash with Red Wine & Juniper Gravy* The Gravy alone took 2 hours yesterday, which was Step 1! Tastes very restaurant-y, with layers of intense flavours.

I am delighted that a short story that I wrote maybe 7 years ago has found its place in gorse 12, which has language as the theme. My piece is about roles and relationships, control, autonomy and linguistic identity. Thank you to Susan Tomaselli for including and editing.

Homemade Cheese & Onion Loaf with hummus, olives, artichokes & stuffed vine leaves. #Lunch before the #launch of *State, In Relation* 🇮🇪 @tbgands.bsky.social featuring @stomaselli.bsky.social @sonyagildea.bsky.social @oeiny.bsky.social #NathanODonnell #ClareBell #AnnemarieNíChurreáin #NithyKasa 🍾 🥳 🎉

This is such an endearing, honest article by author & academic Ger Moane, tracing her #Newgrange obsession via a schoolgirl crush. How that [complexity] led to the writing of her brilliant, immersive Druid novel *Keeper of Stones* www.buythebook.ie/product/keep...

Looking forward to Doolin Writers Weekend in January (16-18), here's the lineup:

I was once a #Bridesmaid who sat on the grass. Now, that image, isolated or patterned in repeat: my Mrs thinks would make a hilarious t-shirt. I think it could genuinely frighten the aliens away within 24-hrs of landing crooked on earth.

Just two places left on my short story course beginning February 3rd. We'll be covering the basic building blocks of writing narrative, as well as concentrating on contemporary topics and concerns that make stories relevant and interesting: irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/writ...

The EU is preparing a gift for pesticide giants: toxic pesticides could stay on the market forever, with no safety tests at all. Yes, forever approvals. Yes, this is real. Sign now to stop it. action.wemove.eu/sign/2025-12...

i am in issue 41 of @whaleroadreview.bsky.social and so is gordon ramsey: www.whaleroadreview.com/plumhoff/

Looking forward to Doolin Writers Weekend in January (16-18), here's the lineup:

This week: tech companies have no interest in keeping children safe online. In fact, they actively target them as users, despite the risks. m.independent.ie/opinion/comm...

Smoky Aubergine & Pepper Tagine: chop 2 X 🍆, 3 red peppers, 1 red 🌰, 3 garlic cloves, 3 tbsp Baharat spice, 1tsp sea salt, roast for 40 mins. Add 8 X big tomatoes (quartered) or 2 tins, 200mls veg stock, 2 tins haricot beans, roast for 30. Serve with chopprd mint, toasted almonds & 🍋 couscous.

The countdown to Christmas is on!🎁 Give your loved ones the gift of literature in translation this festive season with our Christmas Bundle. Two titles of your choice, gift wrapped with a personalised note, and posted anywhere in Ireland for just €29!

Confessions of a Shopaholic novelist Sophie Kinsella dies aged 55

Neil Hegarty reviews the vivid and inventive new collection The Marionette and the Maestro, by Tanya Farrelly (Arlen House) @neilhegarty.bsky.social @arlenhouse.bsky.social booksirelandmagazine.com/control-horr...

gorse 13 has arrived to the house!

STATE, IN RELATION. My piece - Word Rain - is designed to be read multiple ways. Launching Sunday 14th at TBG+S, and available to buy at Dublin Art Book Fair. 📸: @sonyagildea.bsky.social

Another acquisition in Cork at the weekend (I live with someone who gets hot under the collar for concrete and grain silos...it takes all sorts to make our obscure world):

Will be cooking up a storm:

Will be cooking up a storm:

Back from a mini road trip and grateful to have survived the driving on super bendy [high speed] rural roads. Picked up this 1970s coffee pot, milk jug & sugar bowl + 2 X glass cups/saucers in #Clonakilty for a steal. Will definitely be back to the #Beara in summer ☀️

Boozer #Clonakilty