British paperback publisher Sphere Books, founded in London in 1961 ambitiously undertook in 1968 the publication of the San-Antonio series. By that time, 70 novels pertaining to this Series had already been published in their original French. Their titles are listed, together with an English translation in the frontmatter pages of the Sphere books. The reader’s curiosity was triggered, but never satisfied. Only a few of the corresponding texts were to be translated. Titles such as San-Antonio in the groove or Action all the way and Swim or sink, San-Antonio never were. Sphere only published seven San-Antonio, and gave up on the project by the end of 1969. What remains are titles without books, a library left incomplete. A vacant lot of titles, a literary ghost estate.
Day: December 22, 2014
Irish Noir in 75 Dates
| Banville, Vincent | Death by design | Wolfhound Press | 1994 | |||
| McEldowney, Eugene | A Kind of Homecoming | Heinemann | 1994 | |||
| McNamee, Eoin | Resurrection Man | Picador | 1994 | |||
| Banville, Vincent | Death the Pale Rider | Poolbeg | 1995 | |||
| Bateman, Colin | Divorcing Jack | Harper Collins | 1995 | Betty Trask Prize |
There are countless examples of Irish Crime Fiction troughout the 20th Century. Admittedly, in some cases the links between a given Crime author and Ireland might be missed, or are by now forgotten. The prolific George A. Birmingham, for example (James Owen Hannay, 1865 – 1950) was a Belfast born Church of Ireland clergyman. Some Irish authors rank amongst the most celebrated representatives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, like the Dublin born Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957). Nicholas Blake (Cecil Day-Lewis, 1904-1972) is another famous Ireland born author of Britsh Mystery novels.The “noir” genre however starts in Ireland much later. For the most part it only began 20 years ago. Continue reading
International Crime Fiction Research Group 