“John McGahern: A Writing Life” By Frank Shovlin – London launch

In 2026 Faber and Faber will publish the much anticipated authorized biography of John McGahern by Frank Shovlin, Professor of Irish Literature at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool and editor of The Letters of John McGahern. Marking the twentieth anniversary of McGahern’s death, the book, drawn from more than two decades of research into one of the great prose stylists of the twentieth century, will allow a reading public for the first time to see into the life of this very private writer.

John McGahern (1934-2006) was a novelist, short story writer and dramatist who grew up in counties Leitrim and Roscommon before training as a primary school teacher and publishing his first novel, The Barracks, in 1963. His second novel, The Dark, was banned by the Irish Censorship Board and McGahern was fired from his job in a Dublin school. Moving to London and later Paris, he eventually returned to live in Ireland with his second wife, Madeline Green, publishing a further four novels and four collections of short stories.