Peter McDonald

The poems in One Little Room enter and explore confined spaces in history and personal memory. The spaces prove not to be as small as they seem from the outside: they expand and interconnect to produce new and dazzling perspectives out of the limits of concentrated meditation and formal shape alike.Poems inhabit the surroundings of a Belfast childhood, pushing these into dimensions where time and space play tricks on memory and circumstance. Boxes,...

From award-winning poet and one of the most important Northern Irish writers and critics of his generation, Peter McDonald, comes an earthy and sensual new collection. Drawing from the landscape of his native Ireland and indebted to the works of Heaney, Yeats and the Ancient Greek classics, each poem in Herne the Hunter reveres both the brutality and beauty of nature. From a hare caught in a trap resigned to its grim fate, to a despondent farmer's...

The poems in The Gifts of Fortune, Peter McDonald's seventh book of poems, cover a spectrum of personal history. They go to Belfast, Oxford, and further afield; in time they visit the poet's pasts, his now, his possible futures. Autobiographical detail abounds: McDonald's experiences (as a working class boy in Belfast, who dreams of leaving, and a middle-aged Oxford don, who dreams of going back) are filtered through a deep instinct for poetic tradition....

Things are not going well for Git Hynes. Just out of jail, he has to accept the fact that his girlfriend has left him for his best friend, Anto. But when Anto gets into trouble with local crime boss Tom French, Git gets involved and finds himself owing French a debt. Repaying it involves an 'easy ride' down to Cork in a stolen car with an old-time criminal, Bunny, as his companion. But this is only the start of Git's involvement in a web of criminals...

When Padraic briefly runs away from home, the Moones discover that his parents are having marital problems. The troubled Padraic takes to shoplifting and is eagerly joined by Martin and Sean on his crime spree, while Debra seizes the opportunity to launch her career as a marriage counselor.

Fidelma, Dessie and Baby Rose move into the Moone house, making the cramped quarters even tighter. Hoping that Grandad might offer his empty house, the Moones bring him over from the nursing home and make their own house look as awful as possible. Amid the Moone slum, Martin and Padraic attempt to film a hilarious clip for a home video TV show.

Martin and Sean discover that Grandad's Alzheimer's has led to the return of his childhood imaginary friend, George Gershwin - a piano-playing swingin' cat, who's enjoying his last hurrah and wants to fulfill his bucket list before Grandad kicks the bucket.

It's Fidelma's hen do and Dessie's stag and the Moone's get new neighbors.

Ireland has qualified for the World Cup, but it clashes with the Moones' holiday plans. Not being a fan of football, Liam insists that they head to Donegal as planned. But soon after arriving, Martin and Sean decide to hitch back to Boyle.

Martin sees 'The Greatest thing his little eyes have ever witnessed' and with money tight in the Moone household he sets to work on the golf course. An old rivalry rears its head and Liam challenges his nemesis to a 'Handball duel'.