Latest news with #TheWildelings
Irish Examiner
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Author interview: Harding back to college days with love of campus novel
In early 2021, at the end of Ireland's final covid lockdown, Lisa Harding was feeling blue. She'd been looking forward to the new year, with the release of her second novel, Bright Burning Things, and indeed, it had received rapturous acclaim from critics. But with covid still raging, she was unable to get out and publicise the book. So even the extraordinary news that the novel had been picked up for the Today Show book club in the US failed to lift her mood. 'It was huge,' she says, as we chat over coffee in the Museum of Literature, Ireland, 'and my publishers were very excited, but I didn't get to go to America. 'I should have gone over and been on The Today show. They would have put me up in New York. 'I was on TV, but it was all done on Zoom, and that felt flat and very isolating.' I was on my own in life, so the whole experience felt sad. It was during this time that she started work on her recently released third novel, The Wildelings, set in a fictionalised version of Trinity College Dublin in 1992 — when Lisa was a student there. 'I've always loved the campus novel,' she says. 'It's rarefied, but you have youth, hormones, abandon, drugs, sex, and rock and roll, and the petri dish setting. 'In the early 1990s, we could afford to live in town. I made my own way, waitressing throughout college and managed to pay rent. We had a lot of freedom.' She calls her university The Wilde as an homage to the Oscar Wilde Creative Writing department where, in 2014, she took an MPhil. 'I love Wilde; I love the centre, and calling it that gave me total artistic licence,' she explains. Characters have all suffered familial abandonment The novel features a group of beautiful students, headed by suburban best friends Jessica and Linda, who have all — in various ways — suffered familial abandonment. When an older student, Mark, takes up with Linda, he infiltrates the group and sets them up against each other — plying them with drink and drugs — then he watches the fallout. The book starts when Jessica, now in middle age, is talking to a therapist, trying to understand and come to terms with the events of her student life — and to try and forgive herself. Lisa met her deadline. The novel was accepted for publication, but she felt it wasn't quite right. After realising how she could fix it, she asked for it back. 'Initially Mark was just a dark predator — a mentalist who played with all these kids — but then I realised that he was a writer, and that Jessica was an actress. 'It blurs the boundaries of the theatre and real life. 'He was the writer who watches the worst of human behaviour and sets it off so that he can write about it; the brilliant writer's mind and icy heart.' I loved the idea of his feeding into all their insecurities and wounds — inveigling his way into their lives and causing havoc. Jessica is cast as the star of Mark's play and, in a shocking scene, is left traumatised. That didn't happen to Lisa, who adored her Trinity days — and particularly her time acting in Players. But as a young actress in Dublin, she remembers feeling unsafe. 'I was in a rehearsal room with two men who were older than me. I was in my underwear, because the part required it, and they were smoking dope. Really inappropriate things were said.' Her experience gives this book an air of authenticity throughout. I was hugely impressed with it — with the writing, theatricality, and sheer page turning drama of it. I learned from it too — what it is to be an actress, as well as the long-lasting effects abandonment can bring. I've always loved Lisa's visceral writing, and this, her best yet, may well become my novel of the year. While Lisa has always enjoyed writing, her initial ambition was to be a dancer. I was a strong contemporary dancer, but there were no training schools in Ireland. 'I got into a place in London, but there was no money and no funding back then,' she says. She studied European languages at Trinity, and then got caught up in Trinity Players — discovering her love and talent for acting. Dominic West directed her in her first play. Having caught the acting bug, she won a scholarship to the Gaiety School of Acting. From there, she built up a successful career — appearing at the Gate Theatre, the Abbey and the Lyric. But a move to London proved less enjoyable. 'I was having a really hard time in my late 20s,' she says. 'I was panic attacking. When you train in the Meissner technique, they're clearing the actor of any ego. They draw on your past hurts and traumas, but they're not psychologists.' They take you to a place where you get really distressed but don't put you back together, and that can be really damaging. Mark uses this method among others to bring out the best acting in Jessica. 'Mark was a good director and a brilliant writer,' says Lisa, 'but does the end justify the means? 'Does high art mean you can do anything and get away with it? Mark would say yes, but 'no' is obviously the answer.' Lisa hated auditions — never feeling she gave of her best, and as time went on, she wasn't getting the kind of parts she wanted. By her late 30s, it was all getting a bit much. That's when she tried writing plays. 'I shocked myself,' she says, 'as I hadn't written since school. 'I sent a play out everywhere, and the National Theatre in London called me in. They said 'this is unique. It's weird and wonderful'.' They didn't put the play on, but they commissioned me to write for a festival for new writers. The books which have followed, she says, are a continuation. 'They are very theatrical, with a lot of dialogue, action, and colour.' The first one, Harvesting, grew out of a short story Lisa wrote during her MPhil in Creative Writing. A visceral, raw story of sex trafficking in Dublin, it focuses on the friendship of two 15 year olds who end up in a highly supervised brothel — Sammy from Dublin, and Nico from Moldova. And the second, Bright Burning Things, features Sonia — a former actress and single mum who is struggling with addiction. 'I felt like I was in Sonia's skin,' says Lisa, 'whereas Jessica is a very heightened, damaged wilful part of me — and of all young actresses I think.' She is currently playing with her fourth novel — which also features an actress. 'I'm writing a lot of scenes and chapters, and just exploring the world of it,' she says. Describing herself as a very messy writer — the last two novels have taken four years each to complete — Lisa is determined to get the next one finished quicker. 'But you never know. In four years, I could be saying: 'I'm not finished.'' Lisa is now in a happy place — she has a partner she adores and has enjoyed several Arts Council funded residencies. She enjoys teaching, but does writing make her happy? 'When I'm in the flow, writing has a similar pulse to dancing. It feels like it's coming from somewhere bigger than me. That feeling is amazing, but it doesn't happen a lot. 'The more you write, and the more pressure is on you to write another book, the more difficult it is to feel that freedom. But when I'm in it, I really do love it.'
Irish Times
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Wildelings by Lisa Harding: Hard lessons in obsession, desire, abuse and power
The Wildelings Author : Lisa Harding ISBN-13 : 978-1526672919 Publisher : Bloomsbury Guideline Price : £16.99 Lisa Harding's third novel, The Wildelings, is set in a fictionalised Trinity College of the 1990s. Jessica and Linda – childhood best friends with a complicated dynamic – become embroiled in new relationships at Wilde University that teach them hard lessons about obsession, desire, abuse and power. The novel is told from Jessica's perspective across two timelines: in the present day she is discussing the traumatic events with a therapist who encourages her to write down everything that happened in chronological order. This written account of her Wilde days is where the story is most alive, energised and compelling. The artifice of the therapist's office scenes, however, disrupts the narrative flow and asks the reader to suspend too much disbelief as regards the plausibility of that construct. Memory does not unspool neatly like this. The reader is immersed in the dream-like surrealism, and high drama, of the 1990s before being interrupted by the therapist asking a question of Jessica as if she too is reading it in real time. With this device, the aim may have been deliberate absurdity, to underscore the character's philosophical quest to derive meaning from the past, but the execution nonetheless takes away more than it adds. Perhaps this framing was borne out of an anxiety that readers would struggle to feel empathy for Jessica – who, although drawn with great psychological acuity and depth, will inevitably be judged on her likeability. This problematic response from readers who struggle to engage or connect with flawed, and therefore human, women characters is an ongoing battle in publishing. READ MORE Harding's previous novels have demonstrated also that she is unafraid to write complex, contradictory, nonconforming women who are authentic products of their past hurts. This is to her great credit, and yet, placing her protagonist in a therapist's office where she must explain her behaviour may betray an anxiety that readers will struggle to understand Jessica without this exposition. [ 'I don't think there is anyone in Ireland whose life hasn't been touched by addiction' Opens in new window ] Harding's publisher is marketing this novel as one for fans of The Secret History by the Pulitzer Prize winner Donna Tartt . As in life, comparison is the thief of joy, and so they do Harding a disservice here by creating that expectation. Fans of Harding's previous novels, however, will not be disappointed as this novel is an excellent illustration of the writerly sensibilities that have won her past acclaim.
Irish Times
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Author Lisa Harding: ‘I have never been scared to look at the dark side of life'
Tell us about your new novel, The Wildelings The Wildelings is about a group of troubled students in Wilde college in 1990s Dublin who fall under the sway of a charismatic, seductive playwright and auteur-in-the-making, who is a future star of the theatre. He preys on the group's insecurities in order to write about them. A terrible tragedy ensues. How important was your time at Trinity College Dublin for your acting and writing career? It was seminal. Although I went in studying European studies, I ended up spending more time in Players than in lectures. Your book isn't autobiographical but did you spend much time in Trinity while writing to soak up the atmosphere? I didn't need to. For research I catapulted myself back to my younger self and called on sensory impressions and heightened memories from my rather 'wild' time at Trinity as an undergrad in the early 1990s. What are the pros and cons of the campus novel? Do you have a favourite? The campus novel's pros and cons are quite similar: insular, rarefied worlds peopled by (often) privileged young students, where youth and hormones rule, and where crazy shit can legitimately happen. The settings are often gothic and atmospheric. My favourite is Bunny by Mona Awad. I loved how she pushed the surreal sensibility. READ MORE You explore both positive and toxic friendships in the novel. Was this intentional or did the characters lead you there? Complex, contradictory, unlikeable, contrary, wilful characters interest me. They don't make for easy relationships. I like to mine the dark side of humour, the human capacity for cruelty, and to excavate where that desire to hurt and be hurt comes from. I am glad you felt there were some positive friendships in the mix! Does your acting background help with dialogue and character development? No doubt. I always write from the inside out. I love the first-person narrator and am interested in the idiosyncratic voice. Dialogue comes naturally. Tell us about your debut, Harvesting, which won the 2018 Kate O'Brien Award Harvesting came about because of my involvement with a campaign to stop sex trafficking of minors in Ireland. It was heavily researched and based in fact. My motivation to write that novel came from a place of anger and compassion. The first draft was 120,000 words, the final one 80,000. Describe the editing process That pretty much applies to all my books. I like to create messy, unwieldy first drafts. Only later do I give any thought to structure and story. I have no problem cutting and rearranging. In fact, I love that part of the process. It's where the true shape of the thing reveals itself. Bright Burning Things (2021) addresses alcoholism over generations and motherhood. Are painful subjects hard to write about? I have never been scared to look at the dark side of life or to speak out. I am not one for sugar-coating reality, or denial. However, I do feel that my job as a writer is to shine a light on these hard truths and to find some humanity in sometimes unfathomable cruelty. Your first two novels were optioned for film. What's the latest? Development is ongoing. I've just been taken on by Sylvie Rabineau at WME in Hollywood for The Wildelings. Which projects are you working on? I've started a fourth novel. A darkly funny take on my trawls through the self-help world. Of course, it's a total mess right now. Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage? In my early twenties I visited Oscar Wilde's grave at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. I was obsessed with him as a young actress. My new title is an ode to him. What is the best writing advice you have heard? 'Be yourself: everyone else is already taken.' – Oscar Wilde. Who do you admire the most? A friend of mine who is a beacon of light despite huge losses and ill health. Her friendship is precious. You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish? Severe penalties for those who inflict animal cruelty. Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend? Tell Me What I Am by Una Mannion and The Bureau by Eoin McNamee. Podcast: Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. TV obsession: The White Lotus. Which public event affected you most? The Yes campaign and the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. I'll never forget the feeling of comradeship and being part of a group mobilising change. The most remarkable place you have visited? The Atlas Mountains in Morocco at night, under the giant desert stars. Your most treasured possession? I lost her recently. My little dog. What is the most beautiful book that you own? Hmm, I think that would be The Selected Works of Samuel Beckett. Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party? Oscar Wilde, Beckett, Amy Hempel, Tim Winton, George Saunders, Elizabeth Strout. The best and worst things about where you live? It's near a lovely park. There's a lot of traffic directly outside. Who is your favourite fictional character? Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. A book to make me laugh? Less by Andrew Sean Greer. A book that might move me to tears? Nesting by Roisín O'Donnell. The Wildelings is published by Bloomsbury.
Irish Times
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Jane Casey and Stuart Neville shortlisted
In The Irish Times this Saturday, John Patrick McHugh tells Edel Coffey about his debut novel, Fun and Games. And there is a Q&A with Lisa Harding about her latest novel, The Wildelings. Reviews are Oliver Farry on The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East Fawaz A Gerges; Karlin Lillington on Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work by Sarah Wynn-Williams; Daniel McLaughlin on Life in Spite of Everything by Victoria Donovan; Edel Coffey on The Marriage Vendetta by Caroline Madden; Frank Wynne on the best new fiction in translation; John Boyne on Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin; Daniel Geary on Good Trouble: The Selma, Alabama and Derry, Northern Ireland Connection 1963-1972 by Forest Issac Jones; Ray Burke on Becoming Irish American by Timothy J Meagher; Helen Cullen on The Wildelings by Lisa Harding; Paraic O'Donnell on Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt; and Kevin Power on Fun and Games by John Patrick McHugh. This weekend's Irish Times Eason offer is The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry, just €5.99, a €6 saving. Eason offer Jane Casey and Stuart Neville have been longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2025. Casey has been recognised for A Stranger in the Family and Neville for Blood Like Mine. Also shortlisted is Birmingham Irish author Marie Tierney for Deadly Animals. READ MORE Three former winners are vying for top honours at this year's Awards, including 2023 champion M.W. Craven, who is longlisted for his adrenaline-fuelled US-set thriller The Mercy Chair, alongside Chris Whitaker for All the Colours of the Dark, a million-copy bestseller exploring the aftermath of a childhood kidnapping, and Chris Brookmyre for the highly original thriller, The Cracked Mirror, which sees a hard-bitten homicide detective and an old lady who has solved multiple murders in her sleepy village, crack an impossible case. Highly commended in 2023, Elly Griffiths receives an impressive tenth longlisting for The Last Word, a murder mystery set at a writers' retreat. Readers are now encouraged to vote for their favourite novels to reach the shortlist, with the winner crowned on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on July 17th. * Tickets for the Belfast Book Festival are now on sale with a packed programme of poetry, fiction, crime writing, journalism, screenwriting, plus developmental opportunities and expert-led discussions and workshops. The 15th edition of the Festival will run from June 5th-12th at The Crescent Arts Centre in south Belfast. Highlights include Game of Thrones star Kristain Nairn and his new book that documents life on the set of one of the world's most popular TV shows, Sam McAlister former BBC Newsnight producer and author of Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC's Most Shocking Interviews, as well as many other author events from Joseph O'Connor, Wendy Erskine, Tessa Hadley, Eimear McBride, Luke Harding, Darran Anderson, Eoin McNamee, Roddy Doyle, Andrea Carter, Neil Hegarty, Noreen Masud, Claire Lynch, Roisin O'Donnell, Jan Carson, Gráinne O'Hare and Thomas Morris among others. As ever, there will be a celebration of emerging talent with the announcement of the Mairtín Crawford Awards. Festival commemorative events will honour Michael Longley and Edna O'Brien. Art lovers should check out The Art of Translation, the festival's exhibition that offers a fantastic snapshot of international book design via leading Irish writers, presented in collaboration with Literature Ireland. Tickets can be be found at * The Shaking Bog festival hosts a one-day programme of events in the Glencree Valley, Co Wicklow, on May 17th, featuring a Dawn Chorus Walk with Sean Ronayne, Moth Magic with Ciarán Finch, Exploring the River Valley with Martha Burton, Wildflowers & Pollinators with Prof Jane Stout, 'What is Wild?' a talk by Mark Cocker and in conversation with Ella McSweeney, and a Concert & Reading with Jane Robinson, Lynda O'Connor & Ailbhe McDonagh. Booking is essential - The Shaking Bog Festival is embarking on a new project. Entitled Riverscapes, this creative exploration of place, heritage and nature will run from May to October. Riverscapes is a place-based initiative which will celebrate, enliven and inform the communities of both people and nature that live in and around the Glencree and Dargle Rivers. And, in turn, share this experience with the wider world. The Riverscapes project will culminate with a new film by acclaimed local film-maker Alan Gilsenan - that will not only draw on the people and habitats of this richly diverse community but will also belong to that community. It is a film that will hopefully reflect life at its most local whilst also mirroring the universal. * Penguin, Sandycove is to publish Andy Farrell's autobiography, The Only Way I Know, on October 16th. Publisher Michael McLoughlin said : " Andy Farrell is rightly seen on these islands as one of the most remarkable sports people and coaches of all time. He has played and been hugely successful in both rugby codes and as a successful coach he has brought the Ireland team to the top of the world rankings and to consecutive Six Nations championship titles. The Lions tour to Australia this summer, under his leadership, will hopefully be another highlight. I am delighted to publish this book, which is as stellar as his career." Farrell said: 'It has been a really interesting and enjoyable process reflecting on my life and career, and working with Gavin Mairs to bring it all together. I have tried to be honest and true to myself, and I hope that is reflected in the book.' * For the third consecutive year, Denis Shaughnessy, writing under the pseudonym Marco Ocram, has won First Prize for Humour at the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBA) in the United States. This literary hat-trick crowns Ocram's 'Awful Truth' series of metafictional satires. Each of the three novels has now won the top prize in the humour category, a rare feat in the world of indie and international publishing. 'I was thrilled to win once, amazed to win twice, and by the third time I thought perhaps the judges needed checking,' joked Shaughnessy. 'But really, it's an honour to see readers and critics connect with something so deliberately absurd.' The awards, held annually in Washington state, draw thousands of entries from across the globe, celebrating excellence in independent and small press publishing. * Waterford Council is running the annual Molly Keane Creative Writing Award. This is a short story competition in memory of the Irish author. The stories must be 2,000 words or less, and entries must be in by noon on May 19th. Entries are only accepted via this link . * The Dublin Small Press Fair has opened a call for applications from publishers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, experimental literature, literary journals, artists' books, zines, chapbooks, broadsides, and more. The first annual fair, organised by Tim Groenland and Éireann Lorsung, will take place over two days in November in Pearse Street Library (with support from Dublin Unesco City of Literature). The fair will celebrate small-scale publishing in Ireland as well as welcoming small presses from abroad, showcasing the innovative and experimental work of small literary presses while providing a space of connection in which publishers can share knowledge and develop relationships. It will feature readings, launches, panels, and exhibitions alongside many tables of books and book-adjacent work from about thirty small and independent presses, journals, book binders, zine makers, and more. Applications are free, and the deadline is July 1st. See for more information. * John Connolly, Marita Conlon-McKenna and Elaine Feeney, will be interviewed over three separate evenings in Kennys Bookshop, Galway in May, to celebrate the launch of their new books. Tickets are available now on On May 1st, crime fiction writer John Connolly will be interviewed about his new novel, The Children of Eve, the latest instalment in his bestselling Charlie Parker series. On May 15th, Marita Conlon-McKenna will be launching her Children of The Famine Trilogy of novels (Under the Hawthorn Tree, Wildflower Girl and Fields of Home), published in one volume for the very first time! She will be joined in conversation by bookseller and author Gráinne O'Brien. Award-winning Galway poet and novelist Elaine Feeney will be launching her new novel, Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way on May 27th in conversation with Sarah Kenny. Feeney's previous novel How to Build a Boat was longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize. Tickets are free but limited. To book, visit * Marty Whelan will launch Killester: from medieval manor to garden suburb by Joseph Brady & Ruth McManus on Tuesday, April 29th at 7.30pm in Killester Donnycarney Football Club, Hadden Park, Killester, Dublin 5. * The Seamus Heaney HomePlace has launched its summer programme. Highlights include comedian Frank Skinner in conversation with Belfast-based poet Scott McKendry on June 27th talking about his love of poetry, as evidenced in his acclaimed Poetry Podcast which is now in its tenth series. On August 10th, Kabosh Theatre Company presents Julie - a new one-woman play written and performed by Charlotte McCurry. Set in West Belfast in 1981, it follows a teenage girl as she navigates the loss of her sister and her family's struggle for justice. Author events include Eimear McBride (May 29th); Nathan Thrall (June 2nd); Glenn Patterson (10th); Paul Lynch (14th); On June 25th, Patterson welcome this year's Seamus Heaney Centre Fellows, author Jan Carson, poet Fiona Benson, and screenwriters Adam Patterson and Declan Lawn (Blue Lines) for what promises to be a lively conversation, offering insight into the lives and work of these four exceptional writers. The 160th birthday of WB Yeats on June 13th is marked with a performance of Sailing to Byzantium, original songs set to 12 of Yeats's poems, performed by Christine Toibin. Following a sell-out performance last year, Ruairi Conaghan returns with his one-man show Lies Where It Falls on June 19th. Finally, on August 30th, HomePlace presents a storytelling brunch: Cloak of Wisdom, featuring Liz Weir, Vicky McParland and Anne Harper.
