Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Kevin Myers, writer, broadcaster and novelist (Banks of Green Willow, 2001), is author of the best-selling Kevin Myers (2001), a gathering of his celebrated Irishman's Diary in The Irish Times, which he wrote for over twenty-five years. He is now an Irish Independent columnist.Watching the Door is the memoir of an ordinary young man who drifted into a war zone, made it his home and, somehow, emerged unscathed.
After Kevin Myers graduated from university in 1969, a chance job application landed him a position as a journalist in Belfast, reporting on the Troubles. There, he was absorbed quickly into the local community and became privy to the secrets of Protestant and Catholic paramilitaries alike. In his darkly funny account of life on the streets, Myers evokes with searing clarity a society on the brink of civil war. His memoir is a remarkable portrait of those divisions, from the dedicated violence of loyalist gangs and provos to the behaviour of paratroopers, squaddies, the local police force and the wider population. Raw, candid and courageous, Watching the Door recalls the bloodiest time in Northern Ireland's recent past. It is a coming-of-age story like no other.
'This was a part of our history, which for too long, was forgotten. To his credit, Kevin has always argued that we should recognise those who lost their lives so tragically and so courageously. Both the Good Friday Agreement and the St Andrews Agreement... will ensure that Northern Ireland never returns to the days of violence and death as so powerfully described by Kevin Myers in Watching the Door.' Bertie Ahern
'There can be no denying the passion, the terrible heart-touching passion, that lies behind every sentence of this book. Kevin Myers bears witness to his, and to his island's pasts, and he is a vigorous witness.' Frank McGuinness
'One of the most extraordinary Irish books of recent years.' Sunday Times
'Sex, drink, betrayal, cowardice, bravery, more drink and beyond all this, always, the violence... this book stinks of the truth.' Andrew Marr
'An essential part of the history of the troubles. It is the most astonishing memoir of its kind that I have read in years, and must be read by anyone interested in the happenings of those terrible years in Belfast City'. Jack Higgins
'Kevin Myers recreates the moral and political slum that was Belfast, and dispels political illusions with irony and caustic wit. What a way to lose your youth.' Christopher Hitchens