Robert McLiam Wilson | |
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![]() Belfast-born author, Robert McLiam Wilson | |
Born | Robert Wilson 24 February 1964 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Occupation | Novelist, journalist |
Language | English |
Education | St Malachy's College; St Catharine's College, Cambridge |
Genre | Crime, Thriller |
Notable works | Ripley Bogle, Eureka Street |
Notable awards | Betty Trask Award; Rooney Prize |
Robert McLiam Wilson (born Robert Wilson, 24 February 1964) [1] [2] is a Northern Irish novelist.
He was born in the New Lodge district of Belfast and then moved to Turf Lodge and other places in the city. [3]
He attended St Malachy's College and studied English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge; [4] however, he dropped out [5] [6] and, for a short time, was homeless. [6] This period of his life profoundly affected his later life and influenced his works. [5]
Wilson moved to Paris where he writes for Charlie Hebdo and Libération . [6] He also writes occasionally for The Guardian , Corriere della Sera and Le Monde .
McLiam Wilson has written three novels: [2]
Ripley Bogle is a novel about a homeless man in London. Eureka Street focuses on the lives of two Belfast friends, one Catholic and one Protestant, shortly before and after the IRA ceasefires in 1994. A BBC TV adaptation of Eureka Street was broadcast in 1999. [5]
He is also the author of a non-fiction book about poverty, The Dispossessed (1992), [2] and has made television documentaries for the BBC. His next novel, Extremists, has been postponed again and again.
His work has been described as 'strikingly original' [7] and as 'one of the most influential literary voices to emerge from Northern Ireland since the Troubles began [who has] has challenged the understanding of contemporary Irishness'. [8]
In 2003, he was named by Granta magazine as one of 20 "Best of Young British Novelists", despite the fact that he has not published new work in English since 1996. [2]
"Ripley Bogle" won the Rooney Prize and the Hughes Prize in 1989, and a Betty Trask Award and the Irish Book Awards in 1990. [2]
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Eureka Street is a BBC Northern Ireland 1999 adaptation to mini-series of Robert McLiam Wilson's 1996 novel of the same name. Set in Belfast in the six months before and after the 1994 ceasefire, it commences with an anonymous hand typing the words, "All stories are love stories." The novel opens with the same text.
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Ripley Bogle is the debut novel of Northern Irish author Robert McLiam Wilson, published in 1989 in the UK although not until 1998 in the US. Written when he was 26, it is arguably his most acclaimed, winning the Rooney Prize and the Hughes Prize in 1989, and a Betty Trask Award and the Irish Book Awards the following year. Many elements of the novel are autobiographical; the author himself was born in Belfast, attended Cambridge University, dropped out and became homeless. It is regarded as a significant novel, producing "both a re-evaluation of Northern Irish literary identity, and an alternative perspective on the Troubles."
Eureka Street is a novel by Northern Irish author Robert McLiam Wilson, published in 1996 in the UK, it focuses on the lives of two Belfast friends, one Catholic and one Protestant, shortly before and after the IRA ceasefire in 1994. A BBC TV adaptation of Eureka Street was broadcast in 1999.
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