The Anatomy of Unbelief

Had the pleasure of interviewing the great Bernard MacLaverty, author of Cal, Lamb and Grace Notes amongst others, for Verbal Magazine. (The full article/issue can be accessed on the left hand side of their site).

"With regard to the Troubles it was impossible to stay silent. A writer writes about the world and the people around him, their concerns, their lives. To have been reared in Northern Ireland and for it to slide into chaos at the age of twenty-six – at an age when you are trying to write – how could you not say something? But it took a long time to gestate. The first attempt was Lamb a metaphor of something destroyed through misguided love. Then the second novel Cal attempted to deal directly with violence. But in such situations the sword is always mightier than the pen. The pen has to wait."