Roddy Doyle is an Irish writer who has produced a string of successful books, one of which won the prestigious Booker Prize. Some of his books have been made into successful films. Doyle is a wonderful observer of humanity. He specialises in describing the working class people of Dublin. Starting with writing black comedy, his books have got grimmer as time goes on. Born in 1958, he is still going strong and writing new books all the time. This entry gives some of his more important ones.

Biography

Born in 1958 in Dublin, Ireland, Roddy grew up in a city which was expanding rapidly in size, with new houses being built everywhere. This is described very accurately in his book Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha. Although fiction, it is very much based around the sort of childhood that Doyle had.

Doyle trained to be a teacher and worked as a teacher for a few years. He then started writing and eventually switched to full time writing. He became famous in Ireland when his short book, the Commitments was made into a film by director Alan Parker. Another of his books, The Snapper, was made into a made-for-TV film by the BBC and was immensely successful, making Roddy Doyle a household name in Ireland.

Doyle's first works were Black Comedy. As he became more successful, he toned down the comedy and increased the Black. THey can be very gruelling reads.

Recently, Doyle started writing for children, and has produced two successful children's books.

Brownbread

A play about two teenagers who kidnap a bishop and demand a ransom. The name is from the rhyming slang which one of the characters uses: "Brown bread" means "dead" - he keeps saying "we're brown bread" as he realises he is in deeper trouble than he wanted.

The Commitments

This was Doyle's first success. It is a small but hilarious book about a group of guys who decide to set up a Soul Music band. The band manages one gig and then collapses in jelaousy and recrimination. This book was made into a successful film by Alan Parker.

The Snapper

Sharon, aged 19, single and free, gets very drunk one night and finds soon afterwards that she is pregnant. She has only a very vague idea of what happened. The story of her pregnancy is told from her point of view and from that of her opinionated father, Jimmy Senior, with hilarious results. This book is a pure joy.

The Van

The story of Jimmy Senior, who loses his job and sets up a chipper van with his friend Bimbo. This is the first of Doyle's books to deal out the comedy and tragedy in equal quantities. It is more thought provoking that his previous work. Although The Van was made into a film, it was not successful.

The Family

After the success of the Commitments and the Snapper, Doyle tried his hand at television, with a four-part series called The Family. This described the life of a working-class family. Each of the four episodes concentrated on a different family member. Unlike the Doyle's previous work, there was very little humour in this series, concentrating on the miserable bleakness of the family's life.

The Woman Who Walked Into Doors

This takes the story of The Family and sets it down in book form. It tells the story of Paula, a woman who has for twenty years been belittled, ignored and beaten by her husband, and her struggle to get sufficient courage and self-esteem to be able to leave him.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

This book won Doyle the Booker Prize. It describes growing up in Dublin of the 1960s through the eyes of a child. There is no pattern to the narrative. Stories are interrupted in the middle, retold, never finished. Through all this, we gradually get an impression of what it was like to grow up in a city which was growing and a family that was falling apart.

The Giggler Treatment

This book for children is short but not sweet. It is crude and funny in a way that children will love. The entire contents of the book describe the 30 seconds immediately preceding a man about to step in some 'dog poo'. This simple event is viewed from many different angles, and develops into an elaborate tale involving children, an intelligent dog and some small imp-like supernatural creatures.

A book I can't remember about 1920

Rover Saves Christmas

A more substantial children's book, it is nothing like as crude as The Giggler Treatment. Santa Claus is unable to do his rounds because Rudolph is sick. Rover, the Talking Dog, stands in, along with a few children as helpers.