Culture That Made Me: John Banville on Joyce, The Sopranos, and the Catechism
John Banville won the Booker Prize in 2005. Picture: Julian Behal
John Banville, 76, grew up in Wexford. He is arguably Ireland’s greatest living writer. In 1969, he began working with the Irish Press as a sub-editor, part of a career in newspapers that lasted over 30 years. In 1970, he published his first book, a collection of short stories entitled Long Lankin.
His novel The Sea won the Booker Prize in 2005. Other classic novels include Doctor Copernicus (1976), the first of The Revolutions Trilogy, and The Book of Evidence (1989). He has also published crime novels as Benjamin Black. His latest novel The Singularities is published by Knopf.
