Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Libertine

Having admitted to my past as a tax collector, busker, journalist, motorcycle messenger and general wastrel, I have also decided to out myself as the author of another novel.... one that I have shied away from releasing until today...

The Libertine, which will be available shortly in eBook format, is an exercise in picaresque wastrelism in extremo. A true opus peccatorum, you might say.

The novel was written when I was young, free and very single. When I think back now I do believe that there is more than a passing resemblance to myself in the main character, Don Kehoe - though only a bit...

Yes - Don Kehoe is a play on Don Quixote, Cervantes' knight of old. And The Libertine lends heavily in style from the likes of J.P. Donleavy, Henry Miller, Hunter S. Thompson and Hank Bukowski to name but a few of the latter-day saints that have blessed the lowly picaro with their wit, time and artistic abandon.


The publication of this book takes me back to Kehoe's Bar on Anne Street South, just off Grafton Street in Dublin, wherein I spent many's the dole cheque and butter voucher when I lived hand to mouth, scraping by selling photocopied collections of my short stories, busking, or blagging pints from unsuspecting acquaintances. The good old days, when the result of a horse race would decide if I'd eat for the next four days.


The story follows the story of Don Kehoe as his life descends into chaos, all thanks to the usual culprits that face a man of thirst.


Ladies and Gentlemen I give you The Libertine. Click here to buy it!

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