Eileen Battersby

Eileen Battersby is the chief literary critic of The Irish Times. She has sometimes divided opinion, having been described by John Banville as "the finest fiction critic we have", while attracting the ire of Eugene McCabe after she famously gave Dermot Healy an unfavourable review in 2011.

Biography

Battersby was born in California. She graduated with honours in English and History from University College Dublin, and went on to receive an honours MA on American writer Thomas Wolfe. She began reviewing books and sports writing which led her into a career in journalism as a staff arts writer with The Irish Times, eventually becoming the chief Literary Correspondent. She has written on archaeology, history, architecture, geography and horses.

Battersby published a memoir, Ordinary Dogs: A Story of Two Lives (2011), about her two rescue dogs. Her collection Second Readings (2010) features 52 of her reviews. She has discussed Kafka on RTÉ Radio 1.

Battersby has won the National Arts Journalist of the Year award four times.

In 2011, controversy ensued when Battersby found Dermot Healy's novel Long Time, No See wanting. Her unfavourable review prompted an angry letter of protest from Eugene McCabe who castigated her for disemboweling "one of the great masters of Irish writing." The review however was not as severe as McCabe implied.

Bibliography

• Second Readings: From Beckett to Black Beauty, 2010, Liberties Press, ISBN 978-1905483815
• Ordinary Dogs: A Story of Two Lives, 2011, Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0571277834

See also

• List of Irish Times employees