Margaret Mulvihill (born 8 March 1954) is an Irish writer. She has published four novels and many works of non-fiction.

Life

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Margaret Mulvihill was born in Dublin and studied history and politics at University College Dublin. She completed her M.A. in economic and social history at Birkbeck, University of London.[citation needed]

Reviewing Mulvihill's first novel, Natural Selection (1985), Eden Ross Lipson wrote in The New York Times: "The plotting may be operetta-awkward, but the prose is often wicked and consistently amusing."[1]

Hilary Bailey reviewed Mulvihill's second novel, Low Overheads (1987), in The Guardian: "Margaret Mulvihill is a natural writer and bounds along comically with verve and energy, side-swiping St Perrier and the blessed Placenta and many other targets as she runs."[2]

Mary Morrissy wrote in The Independent about Mulvihill's third novel, St Patrick's Daughter (1994): "Mulvihill has a deft comic touch and a sure hand with verbal slapstick. The irreverent subtext, littered with the superstitious vocabulary of the catechism – purgatory, baptisms of desire, the children of Fatima - brings alive the world of Irish Catholicism, in all its richness and trumpery, far more effectively than a grim dose of realism."[3]

Her non-fiction work includes a biography of Charlotte Despard (1989), a biography of Benito Mussolini (1990), an account of the French Revolution (1989) and The Treasury of Saints and Martyrs (1999).[citation needed]

She was a UEA Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia in 1989.[4] She has contributed to New Writings Two, published by the British Council,[5] the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,[6] The Electronic British Library Journal,[7] and the Fish Anthology, 2007.[8]

Works

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Novels

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  • Natural Selection, Pandora, 1985. ISBN 978-0-86358-058-1
  • Low Overheads, Pandora, 1987. ISBN 978-0-86358-140-3
  • Saint Patrick’s Daughter, Sceptre,1994. ISBN 978-0-340-59774-3 (serialised on Woman's Hour)
  • The Leaving Coat, Kindle Edition, 2013. ISBN 978-1-301378050

Non-fiction

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References

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  1. ^ Ross, Eden (4 May 1986). "In Short: Fiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  2. ^ Bailey, Hilary; "Birth Rites: Hilary Bailey on new fiction"; The Guardian, 4 September 1987; p. 27
  3. ^ Morrissy, Mary (10 April 1993). "A bad case of the unrequiteds: 'St Patrick's Daughter'". The Independent. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  4. ^ "Creative Writing fellowships". University of East Anglia. 12 January 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  5. ^ Motion, Andrew (11 September 1997). "New Writing 2". British Council. Archived from the original on 4 January 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  6. ^ "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Charlotte Despard". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 15 September 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37356. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 24 January 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. ^ "Electronic British library Journal, Authors". British Library. 15 October 2009. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
  8. ^ "A Paper Heart Is Beating, A Paper Boat Sets Sail". Fish Publishing. 7 April 2007. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
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