It's Normal People for pensioners (sort of)
Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language, defined 'novel' as 'a small tale, generally of love'. The Irish writer Andrew Meehan would probably agree. His social media profile says he 'writes about love. That's about the size of it.' Meehan is the author of three previous novels about love, including love across national borders and the love between Oscar Wilde and his wife, Constance. With his new novel, Best Friends, he's gone geriatric: it's a sort of Normal People for pensioners.
The pensioners are the Dubliners Ray Draper, 70, and June Wylie, 74. As soon as they are introduced, we can tell this is a book with character and individuality. June 'once had herself down for Chrissie Hynde, but punks get
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
36 minutes ago
- The Sun
Win a copy of A Novel Murder by E.C. Nevin in this week's Fabulous book competition terms and conditions
T&CS Open to United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland residents aged 18 or over only, except employees of the Promoter, News Corp UK & Ireland Limited, and their associated, affiliated or subsidiary companies, their families, agents or any other person(s) connected with the competition, including third party promotional partners. Competition closes at 11.59pm on June 28, 2025 (the 'Closing Date'). Entries received after the Closing Date will not be counted. One entry per person. Bulk, automatically generated or third party entries are void. To enter you must click the 'click to enter' link on A Novel Murder page before the Closing Date. There will be 10 winners. The winners will be selected at random from all valid entries for this competition received before the Closing Date. Winners will be notified by email or phone or using the other contact details provided by the winner within fourteen days after the Closing Date. All reasonable endeavours will be made to contact the winner during the specified time. If a winner cannot be contacted or is not available, the Promoter reserves the right to re-draw another winner from the valid/correct entries that were received before the Closing Date. The prize is a copy of A Novel Murder in hardcover, paperback or e-book format, at the discretion of the Promoter. The prize is non-transferable and there are no cash alternatives to the prize in whole or in part. The promoter of this competition is News Group Newspapers Ltd (publishers of The Sun) (the 'Promoter'). General terms and conditions for competitions apply*. *GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COMPETITIONS These terms and conditions apply to all competitions (unless and to the extent that) the competition states otherwise. The winner is responsible for ensuring they are able to accept the prize as set out and in accordance with these terms and conditions, in the event they are unable to do so then the Promoter reserves the right to redraw the prize. Entry is free but entrants should be aware that they may be subject to data charges depending on their own individual arrangements for Internet access if entry is online or by email. An eligible entrant must be an individual, must enter on their own behalf, and must submit an entry in the form requested by the Promoter under this promotion including their name, address and e-mail address. By entering, all eligible entrants agree to abide by each and all these terms and conditions. Misrepresentative or fraudulent entries will invalidate an entry. Where a competition involves a voting process: offering or receiving any incentive for voting is not permitted and will invalidate the vote, and may disqualify the recipient of the vote. The Promoter reserves the right, with or without cause, to exclude entrants and withhold prizes for violating any of these terms and conditions. The Promoter reserves the right to amend these terms and conditions. Any amendments will be published on the Promoter's website (the 'Website'). The Promoter reserves the right to publish entries (including parts of entries) other than the winning entry and publication does not necessarily mean the entrant has won a prize. Entrants will retain copyright in their submitted entries, however, by entering, all entrants licence the Promoter a worldwide royalty-free perpetual licence to edit, publish and use each entry in any and all media (including print and online) for publicity and news purposes. The Promoter reserves the right to publish entries (including parts of entries) although publication does not necessarily mean the entrant has won a prize. There is no cash or other alternative to the prize stated and the prize is not transferable and no part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions. Winners may be required to submit valid identification before receiving their prize. The Promoter's decision is final and binding on the entrants. No correspondence will be entered into. The Promoter will not be liable for technical, hardware, or software failures of any kind or lost or unavailable network connections that may limit or prohibit an eligible entrant's ability to participate in the competition. Other than death or personal injury arising from the acts or omissions of the Promoter or its employees, the Promoter will not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of the winner's (or their guest's) enjoyment of the prize. By entering, any subsequent prize winners agree to allow the free use of their names, photographs and general locations for publicity and news purposes during this and future promotions by the Promoter or any associated or subsidiary company of News Corp UK & Ireland Limited. Uses of personal data received by the Promoter in the course of the promotion are subject to the privacy policy found on the Website. Winners' names may be published on the Website. Completion and submission of a registration slip or e-mail will be deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions. The Promoter reserves the right at any time to cancel, modify or supersede the competition (including altering prizes) if, in our sole discretion, a competition is not capable of being conducted as specified. The Promoter reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal value in the event that circumstances beyond their control make this unavoidable. For a list of winners please send a stamped envelope to News UK, Competitions Department, 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF stating for which competition you would like winners' details. Competition rules published in publications of the Promoter (including social media if applicable) or on the Website form part of these rules.
The Guardian
37 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Poem of the week: Hermes by Gabriele Tinti
Hermes by Gabriele Tinti What you were waiting for has gone. You are sad and unable to separate yourself from the earth. You are tired of living as you live and know you will not go home tomorrow. Let yourself be accompanied — the course of the day is at its end, the road is clad in mist. The knife cleaves the night, wounds the moon, patiently sharpens the distant ruins. The throats of the world open wide, they hungrily await beyond the clouds. Gabriele Tinti's recent collection, Ruins, assembles his ekphrastic poems, short essays by various hands, and photographs of the pantheon of Graeco-Roman statuary. Hermes is from Part II, The Nostalgia of the Poet, a title that may remind readers of Georgio de Chirico, the artist featured on our previous visit to Gabriele Tinti's work. In the photo accompanying Ruins, the angle of the Seated Hermes is turned a little more directly towards the viewer than the above image of the same bronze sculpture. The figure's face expresses a mood not usually associated with this most mercurial of the gods. Hermes' mouth is slightly slack, the eyes downcast, looking at nothing. Seated on a boulder, his left hand hanging loosely, empty of the caduceus, the magical staff it often held, the god wears his winged sandals but looks unprepared for lift-off. He seems to have abandoned, or to have been abandoned by, his genius for effortless flight. The poem understands his predicament immediately as that of the disinherited poet. In a note, Tinti explains that it was Hermes, not Apollo, who was the 'first poet of myth'. In the poem, he addresses not only Hermes, perhaps, but his own poetic persona: 'What you were waiting for has gone / You are sad and unable to separate yourself // from the earth. You are tired of living as you live / and know you will not go home tomorrow.' The mythical Hermes was as worldly as he was otherworldly, a god of 'boundaries, roads, travellers, merchants, thieves, athletes, shepherds, commerce, speed, cunning, language, oratory, wit and messages', as Wikipedia explains it. Tinti's focus dismantles in a few characteristically epigrammatic strokes these variegated possibilities. It closes the very road in front of him with mist and nightfall, shifting briefly from couplet to tercet in a movement that reflects the god's difficulty rather than an expanded opportunity. The word 'accompanied' in the tercet's first line carries the weight of significant loss. It suggests that the debilitated, flightless poet is in need of a companion, a psychopomp like Hermes, to guide his soul into the Underworld – for poets, the dream-life of the unconscious. It also suggests the musical term, 'accompaniment' – the instrumental companion of the voice. The accompanist affirms and sometimes guides the solidities of tonality and tempo that can be more freely interpreted by the vocalist. Hermes, the originator of the lyre, is a virtuoso double-performer, a singer who once provided his own magical accompaniment. Hermes, I think, is identified by Tinti with the wholeness of lyric poetry, and the subsequent loss of that wholeness. The god, while still an infant, had made the first lyre from a tortoise shell and the knifed-out guts of one of the cattle he had stolen from his brother Apollo. (It was Apollo who, enraged, gave him his title as the leader of thieves and general nocturnal roguery.) Later, at the insistence of the boys' father, Zeus, Hermes agreed to hand his lyre over to Apollo in recompense. Apollo subsequently gave the lyre to his son, Orpheus. 'Its sound exuded serenity, love, and sweet sleep,' Tinti writes, 'and, unlike the flute, it could accompany the human voice.' So the lyre passed to Orpheus, but he, for all the wonders his accompanied singing could effect, was unable finally to liberate Eurydice from the underworld. Ultimately, Zeus would take the lyre beyond reach of human hands and place it among the constellations, as Lyra. In the poem, however, vulgarisation and destruction rather than elevation await the lyre: it's merely 'the throats of the world' that 'open wide, / they hungrily await beyond the clouds'. This indicates the severity of the decline Tinti sees in the authority of the contemporary poet. The knife Hermes has wielded, bloodily but transformingly, in making the lyre's sound-box and strings, 'cleaves the night, wounds the moon, / patiently sharpens the distant ruins'. In that last image, 'ruins' are symbols of nostalgia, the longing of the poet for home among poetry's ancient presences. Makers and muses are far from being the only inhabitants of Tinti's rich pantheon, but they are a significant part of it, and related integrally with the question he poses regarding the interception by Zeus of Orpheus's lyre: 'Was this the end of poetry? We cannot say. But our own plucking of the strings is now only a nostalgic pursuit of that distant trace left by the gods, by the first legendary poets.' His further thoughts on poetry's loss of the capacity for 'singing tragically' may be investigated in an interview here. Gabriele Tinti is an Italian poet and translator. His recent publications in addition to Ruins are Bleedings, Confessions and Hungry Ghosts.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
The 1% Club viewers in awe as ‘genius' footballer wins £100k for charity – but would you have got final question right?
THE 1% Club viewers were left in awe as a 'genius' footballer bagged an incredible £100,000 for charity. Lee Mack presented a Soccer Aid special of the popular ITV quiz show. 4 4 4 A star-studded lineup including Jill Scott, Iain Stirling, Paddy McGuinness and Tommy Fury played on behalf of UNICEF. In the end, former footballer Clarke Carlisle and comedian Lloyd Griffith reached the final round. Lee asked the pair: "In the opening verse to the original version of Three Lions, what TWO words feature exactly three times in the lyrics?" The lyrics were shown on screen as a reference as they tried to figure out the answer in 30 seconds. When it came time to answer, Lloyd, 41, admitted he'd misread the question. Meanwhile, Clarke, 45, offered up "it" and "know" as his answer to the puzzle. It was soon revealed that Clarke was correct - and had bagged a whopping £100,000 for UNICEF. Fans took to X and sang the star's praises, with one penning: "Clarke Carlisle you Brainiac!! Well done!" Another shared: "Absolutely delighted for Clarke! Always had a brilliant brain - but came close to losing him!" A third chimed in: "Clarke Carlisle is a genius!!" The 1% Club player makes blunder on question that had 11 people stumped Having reached the 1% question, Clarke and Lloyd had won £10,000 for UNICEF. Unlike the regular show, this money was not in jeopardy and was guaranteed whatever happened. Clarke also still had his pass intact, meaning the charity would be definitely receiving £11,000 altogether. Not every contestant is as lucky - as a tricky alphabet question in the regular show knocked out 18 players. Contestants were shown four words and asked to spot the one that does not contain three consecutive letters from the alphabet. The 1% Club's Most Difficult Questions The 1% Club sees 100 contestants try and make it to the 1% question and be in with a chance to win a share of the jackpot. Here are just some of the show's most difficult teasers. Players had to compare and contrast three images of butterflies then explain which of the butterflies were exactly the same on both sides. Find the image and answer here. Players were shown groups of six symbols then asked which were in the same order whether you read them from left to right or right to left. Find the image and answer here. Players were asked how many different combinations were there of displaying four digits on one hand. Find the answer here. Peter had recently found his old diary that he'd written in secret code but he couldn't remember how to decipher what he wrote. Players were asked to crack the code and find out what the bold word was. WH89 I GR1W UP I WA92 21 B8 A 5L1RI72. Find the image and answer here. Players were tasked with working out how many eyes they could see in an image, which was made up of letters, symbols and emojis. Find the image and the answer here. A 1% question was based on a grid of numbers going in ascending order from 1 to 49. Starting on 25, the middle square, SEEN took you to square 27. From there, NEW took you to 20. From there, which square would SEWN take you to? Find the image and the answer here. And finally, an easy one - What common food in bold has had its letters rearranged into alphabetical order? ABDER If you really don't know you can find the answer here. The options were, Unopenable, Understandable, Unquestionable, and Undefineable. The answer turned out to be C, 'Unquestionable'. ' Unopenable' contains 'NOP', 'Undefineable' includes 'DEF', and 'Understandable' also hides 'RST'. The 1% Club airs on ITV1 and ITVX. 4
