He has written, often and eloquently, about the oppression of the Catholic church - in particular its merciless attitude to homosexuality. I thought of Boyne when I visited Dublin last month. Granted, there are four Nobel laureates among them, but the absence of women writers is ludicrous. Although they do let us use it to dry the dishes.”īoyne was slyly commenting on the tea towel (and t-shirt, and coaster) found in every souvenir shop in Ireland featuring “Twelve Great Irish Authors” - all of them men.
In John Boyne’s recent novel The Heart’s Invisible Furies, a character says teasingly to a female writer, “You’ll be on the tea towel one of these days.” “That will never happen,” she replies.
