Tag: colm-toibin

Although you never ever regret reading Colm Tóibín’s books, you may regret ‘The Bridge’ for raising the hope that ‘A Long Winter’ for his queer hero, Miquel (the finest of them all) never ends.

September 8, 2026

Colm Tóibín is a true writer of the heart but not from it, except in as much as hearts seem to beat on when there reasons for doing so, in the myth that the heart is the centre of emotional attachments or longing for such have not yet been initiated or have long gone. Later … More Although you never ever regret reading Colm Tóibín’s books, you may regret ‘The Bridge’ for raising the hope that ‘A Long Winter’ for his queer hero, Miquel (the finest of them all) never ends.

Mainly, the only regret I find when I have read a book is that I can’t read it again ‘for the first time’, but it passes! A last day at Edinburgh Book Festival 30th August 2026.

August 31, 2026

Mainly, the only regret I find when I have read a book is that I can’t read it again ‘for the first time’, but it passes! A last day at Edinburgh Book Festival 30th August 2026. I must have been somewhere near Dunbar when I took the photograph from the train that was fast moving … More Mainly, the only regret I find when I have read a book is that I can’t read it again ‘for the first time’, but it passes! A last day at Edinburgh Book Festival 30th August 2026.

The ease of modern ‘travel’ can hardly be inspired. Only when ‘travel’ equates to ‘travail’ (hard labour and unforeseen difficulty) does it require that input of strong breath from without.

July 19, 2026

For some travel will always be made to include hard work and uncertainties If you test an AI searcher like Co-Pilot on the origins of the word ‘travel’ these days, you get something like this (what I got today): The validity of some of those sources used by the AI tool can be queried but … More The ease of modern ‘travel’ can hardly be inspired. Only when ‘travel’ equates to ‘travail’ (hard labour and unforeseen difficulty) does it require that input of strong breath from without.

I read this book and it changes you. This blog considers the short stories in Colm Tóibín (2026) ‘The News From Dublin’.

April 10, 2026

I read this book and it changes you. ‘In his preface to The Spoils of Poynton, Henry James talks about this idea of a “germ”, what he called “a mere floating particle in the stream of talk”, something that “has the virus of suggestion”. Life, as James would have it, is “all inclusion and confusion”, just as art is … More I read this book and it changes you. This blog considers the short stories in Colm Tóibín (2026) ‘The News From Dublin’.