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If your house was on fire, what books would you save from the flames?
Launching today the Books Ireland podcast Burning Books—think Desert island discs, only books—features authors and well-known cultural figures discussing the titles that have formed the backdrop to their lives—their childhood memories perhaps, or books they fell in love with. Maybe there are authors they return to over and over, or novels which formed their world view—stories that shaped them or books which offered a refuge or a life raft.
Editor Ruth McKee asks each guest which books they’d save, which they’d leave behind, and what other non-book treasure they would rescue from the flames.
Lighting the match in episode one is Jan Carson , who talks about growing up in Co. Antrim, religious hardwiring, magic realism and much more as she reveals the books she would pull from the flames—and the ones she’d leave behind.
Jan Carson is the author of Malcom Orange Disappears, Children’s Children, Postcard Stories (The Emma Press) and The Fire Starters (Penguin) which won the European Prize for Literature. Her latest book The Last Resort has just been published with Doubleday Ireland.
Upcoming guests on Burning Books include Ethel Ronan, Patrick Freyne and Rick O’Shea. Come and join us here!
