As anyone who has read Mary Coughlan’s new autobiography Bloody Mary will testify, no other woman has more right to sing the blues than she. A rollercoaster ride of child abuse, alcoholism and heartache, her thunderous lifestyle has often overshadowed the adroit musical career that put her in the public eye in the first place. Her latest album The House Of Ill Repute has earned her the best reviews of her career and harvested a whole new generation of fans. Exploring the seedy world of prostitution, pimps and burlesque, she will be showcasing her vintage cabaret around the country until Christmas, when she will be taking the show to Italy. We interrupted her during the Masterchef final to discuss Babylonian whores, breakfast in bed with Jools Holland and life post happy-ever-after. You... Similar posts

I’m only grumbling because I wasn’t invited, of course, but there’s a touch of the tired old blarney about ‘Emerald Noir’, next Saturday morning’s panel on Irish crime writing at Harrogate, which will be moderated by Ruth ‘Cuddly’ Dudley Edwards (right). Quoth the Harrogate interweb malarkey: Crime fiction is for many identified with big, brash urban landscapes, but some of the hottest properties in contemporary crime fiction come from and write about the greenest of all lands, Ireland. But what is it about the Emerald Isle that makes it the perfect place for crime of all types? Four top names – Declan Hughes, Gene Kerrigan, Ava McCarthy and Brian McGilloway – talk about their influences and background, the importance of landscape and history, and the place of... Similar posts

Yep, it’s rubber-hose time, folks: a rapid-fire Q&A; for those shifty-looking usual suspects ...What crime novel would you most like to have written?THE POET, by Michael Connelly. I enjoy Connelly’s Harry Bosch series, but for me THE POET has an extra pull. There was a page-turning quality about it that had me riveted, and the twists and surprises were hard to second guess. What fictional character would you most like to have been?Kinsey Millhone, from Sue Grafton’s alphabet mystery series (A IS FOR ALIBI, B IS FOR BURGLAR, etc.). She’s a feisty, prickly, no-nonsense kind of gal, with an admirable capacity to be true to herself at all times. Plus, she has some really snappy one-liners … Who do you read for guilty pleasures?I associate guilt with many things, but never with... Similar posts

I’ve always been a bit of a dissatisfied one, prone to pessimism and glass-half-empty thinking. But recently I came across a self-help book that made me feel a little better about my whiney-ass complaining. 30 Something and Over it: What happens when you get up and don’t want to go to work … Ever Again by Kasey Edwards is the story of how Kasey realised she had lost her ‘give-a-shit’ and how she found it again. Having worked all the way through her 20s, striving to achieve her ambitions, she found that despite having a great job, house, boyfriend, consumerist crap to beat the band, she still wasn’t fulfilled. Essentially, she cuts down her working hours and takes up writing. I think Kasey’s dilemma is a common one with both women and men. In my early and mid-twenties I... Similar posts