Dear diary: a daily artform whose time has come again

Our chance to see another side of writers, perhaps one that won’t be flattering

Ian McEwan: ‘I’ve been following politics for years, and I’ve never felt such anxiety about the chaos, the lack of leadership’

The writer on his futuristic novel What We Can Know, climate change and the alarming lack of self-scepticism in Trump and Putin

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan: Futuristic cli-fi that marvels at people of today ‘flying 2,000 miles for a one-week holiday’

Earth’s population has been halved, with warlords controlling what’s left of North America, and Nigeria as the world’s leading superpower

Patrick McCabe: ‘This whole idea of making money out of novels started in the 1980s with Martin Amis and Ian McEwan’

McCabe, who found himself adrift in the 21st-century book business despite his huge impact on the culture in the 1990s, on the bliss of going rogue

The Irish Times books of the year: Best fiction of 2022

Niamh Donnelly selects her favourite 16 novels and short-story collections from the past 12 months

The Love Makers by Aifric Campbell: Ethical quandaries of a sex robot

Unique novel of big ideas considers advances in technology and where they might take us

Christopher Walken: ‘I’m not disturbed. I pay my bills. I’ve been married for 55 years...’

In 1964, a nightclub dancer named Ronnie Walken changed his name to Christopher

Video

House in Joyce’s The Dead to be turned into hostel despite Tóibín appeal

Bord Pleanála approves plans following objections from authors, poets and An Taisce

‘Lady Muck’ – An Irishwoman’s Diary on flaunting it

The Irish Times view on Saoirse Ronan: star power

The four-time Oscar nominee is the most successful Irish film actor ever – and she is still only 25

Saoirse Ronan agrees sale of Greystones home for more than €1.6m

Another well-known Irish actor and leading sportsperson both interested in star’s house

Ian McEwan on Brexit: ‘My solution is simple: a united Ireland’

The English author’s new book imagines a cockroach as the prime minister of the UK

Ian McEwan to publish new ‘biting political Brexit satire’

Out this month, The Cockroach sees a man wake up as prime minister, hellbent on a mission to carry out the will of the people

It is rare to hear anybody arguing for the inherent inferiority of popular fiction

Tóibín’s error when discussing the prose in genre fiction was to move from ‘I just get bored’ to ‘it’s blank, it’s nothing’