St Mary's Research Fellow reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement

Two books co-edited by Research Fellow in the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s University, Twickenham Dr Keith Hopper, were the subject of the lead fiction review in the latest issue of Times Literary Supplement (1 April 2016). Dr Hopper is the co-editor (with Prof Neil Murphy) of Dermot Healy's The Collected Short Stories and an edited reprint of Healy’s debut novel Fighting with Shadows, which were published by Dalkey Archive Press in October 2015. As the critic in the TLS noted: “Before Murphy and Hopper’s accomplished reissue of Fighting with Shadows the novel has been out of print since 1986. What was a reasonably chaotic text has become lucid and elegant under editorial guidance, and is now rigged with an introduction, a glossary of Irish terms and a list of published extracts from the novel that gives readers a view into Healy’s methods of composition and revision. The clarity of the editorship supports an appreciation of Healy’s style: his innovations with dialogue and reported speech have flowered, free of typographical weeds. Much the same can be said for the editors’ work on The Collected Short Stories, which is a triumph of colourful and rational compilation”. Dr Hopper said, “Dermot Healy was an extraordinary but often under-appreciated writer. Our hope is that these two volumes, which constitute the first phase in an on-going research project, will help cement his reputation within the Irish literary canon and beyond”. —Dr Keith Hopper teaches Literature and Film Studies for Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education, and is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s. He is the author of Flann O’Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-modernist (revised edition 2009) and general editor of the twelve-volume Ireland into Film series (2001–2007). He is also the co-editor (with Neil Murphy) of Flann O’Brien: Centenary Essays (2011) and The Short Fiction of Flann O’Brien (2013). Dermot Healy’s The Collected Plays and a volume of critical essays entitled Writing the Sky: Observations and Essays on Dermot Healy, co-edited by Dr Hopper and Prof Murphy, will be published this July.