Margaret Mulvihill (born 8 March 1954) is an Irish writer. She has published four novels and many works of non-fiction.
Life
editMargaret Mulvihill was born in Dublin and studied history and politics at University College Dublin. She completed her M.A. in economic and social history at Birkbeck, University of London.[citation needed]
Reviewing Mulvihill's first novel, Natural Selection (1985), Eden Ross Lipson wrote in The New York Times: "The plotting may be operetta-awkward, but the prose is often wicked and consistently amusing."[1]
Hilary Bailey reviewed Mulvihill's second novel, Low Overheads (1987), in The Guardian: "Margaret Mulvihill is a natural writer and bounds along comically with verve and energy, side-swiping St Perrier and the blessed Placenta and many other targets as she runs."[2]
Mary Morrissy wrote in The Independent about Mulvihill's third novel, St Patrick's Daughter (1994): "Mulvihill has a deft comic touch and a sure hand with verbal slapstick. The irreverent subtext, littered with the superstitious vocabulary of the catechism – purgatory, baptisms of desire, the children of Fatima - brings alive the world of Irish Catholicism, in all its richness and trumpery, far more effectively than a grim dose of realism."[3]
Her non-fiction work includes a biography of Charlotte Despard (1989), a biography of Benito Mussolini (1990), an account of the French Revolution (1989) and The Treasury of Saints and Martyrs (1999).[citation needed]
She was a UEA Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia in 1989.[4] She has contributed to New Writings Two, published by the British Council,[5] the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,[6] The Electronic British Library Journal,[7] and the Fish Anthology, 2007.[8]
Works
editNovels
edit- Natural Selection, Pandora, 1985. ISBN 978-0-86358-058-1
- Low Overheads, Pandora, 1987. ISBN 978-0-86358-140-3
- Saint Patrick’s Daughter, Sceptre,1994. ISBN 978-0-340-59774-3 (serialised on Woman's Hour)
- The Leaving Coat, Kindle Edition, 2013. ISBN 978-1-301378050
Non-fiction
edit- The French Revolution, Franklin Watts, 1989, ISBN 978-0-531-17167-7
- Roman Forts, Gloucester Press, 1989, ISBN 978-0-7496-6822-8
- Charlotte Despard: A Biography, London, 1989. ISBN 978-0-04-440446-0
- The Treasury of Saints and Martyrs, Marshall Editions/Viking, 1999. ISBN 978-1-84028-205-4
References
edit- ^ Ross, Eden (4 May 1986). "In Short: Fiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
- ^ Bailey, Hilary; "Birth Rites: Hilary Bailey on new fiction"; The Guardian, 4 September 1987; p. 27
- ^ Morrissy, Mary (10 April 1993). "A bad case of the unrequiteds: 'St Patrick's Daughter'". The Independent. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
- ^ "Creative Writing fellowships". University of East Anglia. 12 January 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ Motion, Andrew (11 September 1997). "New Writing 2". British Council. Archived from the original on 4 January 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Charlotte Despard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 15 September 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37356. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 24 January 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ "Electronic British library Journal, Authors". British Library. 15 October 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ "A Paper Heart Is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail". Fish Publishing. 7 April 2007. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.