Amazon.co.uk Review
Giving up one's dream career as a pop star is one thing--understandable, in fact, if half of what they say is true--but giving up a second, successful career as a Guardian journalist--a post which you readily admit is the realisation of a life-time ambition--could be considered, er, hasty. Whatever, Scottish-born Lawrence Donegan, sometime bass guitarist with
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, packs his notebook and, with nary a glance behind him, walks away from Farringdon Road to a new life in the remote, rural Irish village of Creeslough. Donegan, ay, to be sure, his very name it is that's brought him hot-footed back to delve into his hitherto little-known (and somewhat surprising) ancestry, soon blags his way into a reporter's job on the local
Tirconaill Tribune. But then, for a newspaper that is often forced to give beached whales lead story status, the arrival in town of an ex-Guardian journo is not something that could in any way be described as uninteresting. The job is his, for little more than an hour or so's pitiful begging.
Alan Cumming, with his own Scottish accent and wonderfully lyrical Irish takes, makes a perfect reader of this beguiling, affectionate tale of a city lad who chooses to jump ship and get back to basics. As in any rural community, it is the brave, feisty and often outlandish inhabitants that make this audio book such a delight. Throw in a meeting with a powerful, despicable American politician and a Hollywood superstar, plus a disarmingly, hilarious account of Donegan's hugely unsuccessful foray into the complex, chaotic game of Gaelic football, and you're guaranteed to be smiling for almost all of No News at Throat Lake. --Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes --Carey Green
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Guardian journalist and ex-Lloyd Cole and the Commotions bassist Lawrence Donegan always had a hankering to live in Ireland. "It was a back-to-my-roots thing. London was filthy, crowded, expensive. Above all, it was inhospitable. I had lived in the same ground-floor flat for eight years and I still had yet to pass a civil word with anyone in the street." In
No News at Throat Lake he says goodbye to all that and exchanges flat, job and girlfriend for a shack in Creeslough, County Donegal.
It's no Year in Provence . The shack is rat-infested, the promised job on a farm proves non-existent and there's scant social-life. But Donegan perseveres (partly because he's too ashamed to tell his girlfriend he couldn't hack it) so finds a job on the Tirconail Tribune and mates on the local Gaelic football team. The newspaper, run by a man named John Mcteer ("In another life John McTeer had been Gore Vidal with stronger opinions, Henry Ford with ambition"), revitalises Donegan's enthusiasm for news reporting, as he investigates local life. He goes on a pilgrimage to the shrine at Knock, researches the life of Doris Duke's Creeslough-born butler and, surprisingly, interviews Meryl Streep in this funny and poignant tale of life in rural Ireland. --Tamsin Todd