On Patrick McCabe

Write about what you know they tell you.For
Patrick McCabe this basic tenet of creative writing classes everywhere surely manifests itself as Ireland in all its maddening and contradictory glory coupled with a fair slice of the writers ferociously eloquent and shocking imagination. He does 'Ireland weird' you see, and as a fellow Irishman I can safely say he has a bottomless well of source material to draw from no matter what Jack Charlton and the Irish tourist board would rather have you know. On the 2nd November the writer talks at the
ICA in London with Tim Adams about his writing and hopefully what sheer fun it must be for McCabe to create these strong character driven narratives. Although new work 'Winterwood' should take precedence the talk will also be a good opportunity for Adams to tease out personal testimonies on the success or failure the novels director
Neil Jordan chose to adapt for film - The butcher boy and recently Breakfast on Pluto - and perhaps the extent of their creative relationship.Shane Deegan.