paul lynch

Booker winner Ian McEwan explores his 1960s childhood in his latest novel and reigning Booker winner Paul Lynch on his unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland.

Social media has been abuzz these past few weeks as the world tries to come to terms with the abundance of creative talent bursting forth from Ireland, from literary greats like Paul Lynch, whose Prophet Song just won the Booker, to actors like Cillian Murphy, Paul Mescal, and Barry Keoghan, who continue to dominate the silver screen. As the pundits continue to pontificate, we’re here to tell you that Ireland’s verdant climate, political history, and nourishment of the arts creates the conditions where bards can grow in every corner of society.

Case in point: Our guest this week is a poet who might not even know it: Pat Whelan, of James Whelan Butchers, is a man whose passion for farming, the craft of butchery, and using the whole animal has led him to become Ireland’s foremost butcher, and the co-author of the best-selling Irish Beef Book, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

On this week’s episode, we speak with Pat about growing up on a family farm and being inspired by his hard-working parents; how important the role of a local butcher is to connecting stewardship for the land to our tables; how the food industry should take lessons from the wine world with regard to cherishing and promoting meat; and much, much more.

Dyed Green is a project of Bog & Thunder, whose mission is to highlight the best of Irish food and culture, through food tours, events, and media. Find out more at www.bogandthunder.com.

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Miles Franklin winner Amanda Lohrey asks where we find community in our secular world, Matthew Reilly's latest adventure and the restorative power of the pool with Katherine Brabon.

Paul Lynch is the 2023 Booker Prize winner for his novel Prophet Song. Prophet Song (Bloomsbury) is an unflinching dystopian novel set in Ireland where a populist government has taken control and becoming increasingly authoritarian. Activists are being disappeared and the main character Eilish Stack is trying to keep her family together. Paul Lynch spoke to the Book Show's Sarah L'Estrange about the writer's responsibility to truth and how to craft a novel that resembles myth. 

In the lead up to the 2023 Booker Prize award, we dive into the six shortlisted novels and meet the authors.

Reading yet more extraordinary fiction from Irish novelists (OK Emma Donoghue actually now lives in Canada, but she's originally Irish): Kate and Cassie on Paul Lynch's Prophet Song, Anne Enright's The Wren, The Wren, and Emma Donoghue's Learned by Heart with guests critic and novelist Gretchen Shirm and poet Beth Spencer

Why don’t all horror flicks have a five-minute long disco dance scene? It seems like just the thing the genre is missing — but, luckily, Prom Night (1980) doesn’t disappoint on that front. On a new episode of Spooky Tuesday, we’re throwing it back to the OG prom movie as we talk about bad boyfriends, how having a sick van can help you find your soulmate, and the most Jan Brady-core piece of trivia we’ve ever heard. This Jamie Lee Curtis original might not have taken off quite as much as its 70s and 80s contemporaries, but with its own set of mysterious phone calls and a shout out from Scream’s Randy Meeks himself, you know it’s worth a watch.

References:

https://thefilmfanaticweb.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/the-slasher-genre-and-prom-night-1980/

https://wickedhorror.com/horror-reviews/prom-night-review/

https://www.fast-rewind.com/trivia_promnight.htm

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/PromNight1980

Deleted scenes: https://youtu.be/zCPZaVchNzQ

Potential 5-Star Review: "You are so strong, Sydney" 

The end of the 1970s and the start of the 1980s became primetime for slasher films after the success of “Halloween” in 1978. 

By that time, studios were all looking for the next hit that could be made for cheap and then produce millions at the box office. It was around this time that director Paul Lynch had a production meeting with Irwin Yablans, who initially came up with the idea for the original “Halloween” when he pitched a film about a group of babysitters who get stalked by a masked killer. 

Lynch had been attempting to come up with an idea for a horror film and it was Yablans who suggested building his movie around a holiday, which gave him the idea to craft a story surrounding a high school prom. Robert Guza Jr., who was a USC film student at the time, had his story adapted about a group of teenagers whose involvement in a tragic accident that comes back to haunt them. 

Lynch struggled to find financing for the film until he cast Jamie Lee Curtis in one of the lead roles with the movie taking just 24 days for filming. The end result was an iconic slasher about a killer coming for revenge after a child is killed when a group of kids are playing a dangerous game…

In the latest episode of Rewind of the Living Dead, we’re going to put on our tuxes and take Randy Meeks’ advice as we review the 1980 classic “Prom Night”… 

Music courtesy of Andrew Scott Bell and Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

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