Monday the 12th
John Banville Books
Nightspawn (1971), Birchwood (1973), Doctor Copernicus (1976), Kepler (1981), The Newton Letter: An Interlude (1982), Mefisto (1986), The Book of Evidence (1989), Ghosts (1993), The Broken Jug: After Kleist (1994), Athena (1995), The Untouchable (1997), Eclipse (2000), Shroud (2002), The Sea (2005)
John Banville Links
Contemporary Writers - John Banville
Site http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth13
Irish novelist John Banville was born in Wexford in Ireland in 1945. He was educated at a Christian Brothers' school and St Peter's College in Wexford. He worked for Aer Lingus in Dublin, an opportunity that enabled him to travel widely. He was literary editor of the Irish Times between 1988 and 1999. Long Lankin, a collection of short stories, was published in 1970. It was followed by Nightspawn (1971) and Birchwood (1973), both novels.
Scriptorium - John Banville
Site http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/banville.html
Of the unease of being in the world and the precarious antidotes to its tedium, toil, and troubles; of living a life examined yet still not lived; of the entangled desire and reluctance to articulate, to say something about these things – these are what John Banville, one of the foremost English prose stylists writing today, writes – and of complicity, too, or the sensation of it. We must never forget our complicity, because we cannot forget our complicity. In what is just a matter of particulars, and such are both the distinctions between life and art and the definition of fraud. Banville’s novels, each more finely honed and more haunting than the last, house the vagrant voices of savants, deceivers, uncertain fugitives, and what Beckett called “the lost ones.”
The Beatrice Interview - John Banville
Site http://www.beatrice.com/interviews/banville/
What attracted Irish novelist John Banville to the story of twentieth century England's greatest spy scandal, the Cambridge affair? "Here are these gifted, privileged young men at the heart of the English establishment," he explains. "well educated, clever, good looking. They seemed to be the natural heirs to British power, after having lived into the 1920s primarily by virtue of having been too young to die in the Great War. And it turns out they were spying for the Soviet Union, of all places." In Anthony Blount, who went on to become an art historian and curator of the queen's paintings until he was publicly 'outed' as a spy in 1979, he found a particularly fascinating personality.
Fantastic Fiction - John Banville
Site http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/b/john-banville/
John Banville was born in Ireland, in 1945. His first book, Long Lankin, was published in 1970. His other books are Nightspawn, Birchwood, Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, The Newton Letter, Mefisto, The Book of Evidence (which was shortlisted for the 1989 Booker Prize), Ghosts, Athena, The Untouchable and Eclipse. He lives in Dublin where he is at work on his latest novel, Shroud.
John Banville - Irish Writers Online
Site http://www.irishwriters-online.com/johnbanville.html
John Banville was born in Wexford in 1945. His novels are Long Lankin (nine short stories and the novella, The Possessed, London, Secker & Warburg, 1970); Nightspawn (Secker & Warburg, New York/ WW Norton, 1971); Birchwood (Secker & Warburg/WW Norton, 1973); Dr Copernicus (London, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1976); Kepler (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1981); The Newton Letter (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1982/ Boston, David R. Godine, 1987); Mephisto (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1986/ David R.Godine, 1989); The Book of Evidence (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1989/ New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989); Ghosts (London, Secker & Warburg, 1993); Athena(Secker & Warburg, 1995); The Untouchable (London, Picador, 1998); Eclipse (Picador, 2000); and The Sea (Picador, 2005). His two trilogies have been published as single volumes - The Revolutions Trilogy: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler, Newton Letter - An Interlude; (Picador, 2000); and Frames: Book of Evidence, Ghosts, Athena (Picador 2001).
John Banville - Man Booker Prize
Site http://www.themanbookerprize.com/2005prize/
Second time lucky for John Banville John Banville was named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction with The Sea, published by Picador. The Irish-born writer was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989 for his novel, The Book of Evidence, but lost out to Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day. This year, however, the tables have turned with The Sea winning over Ishiguro’s shortlisted Never Let Me Go.
John Banville Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction Best Novel winner (1976) : Doctor Copernicus, The Booker Prize Best Novel nominee (1989) : The Book of Evidence, Whitbread Prize Best Novel nominee (1997) : The Untouchable, The Booker Prize Best Novel winner (2005) : The Sea
"We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence."
W. B. Yeats, speech in the Irish Senate, June 11, 1925