
A beautifully written Irish memoir about an extraordinary family.
From the author’s great-grandmother Katherine Rose, who made her way from Stratford-upon-Avon to Lisburn as part of the Plantation of Ulster, and her forebear William Blacker, who founded the Orange Order, to her great-uncles Frank, Matt, Gerry and Jimmy Tipping, who were all active in nationalism in the 1920s, this astonishing cast of characters brings Irish history to life.
‘My direct and indirect forebears are a wonderfully heterogenous lot – down and up the social scale (mostly down), in and out of church and chapel, Lurgan Papes and Wexford Prods, hanged and hangmen, street-brawlers and scholars, full-blown Orangemen and republican activists.’
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About Patricia Craig
Reviews for A Twisted Root
Irish Times brilliantly drawn characters and scenes ... a testament of the triumph of quiet intelligence
Aisling Foster a well written and entertaining exploration of her tangled roots This engrossing and discursive memoir... will surely take its place in the canon of contemporary Ulster literature.
Edna O'Brien a lesson in human history and a story which will, no doubt, spur many readers to discover their own 'ancestral entanglement' a montage of memory and imagination a fascinating account of of the weirdly interconnected story of her ancestry astonishing cast of charaters creates a compelling portrait of a family and brings Irish history to life a thought provoking study