Farrell wrote superbly all his books had a quality that hallmarks great literary talent - he could 'do' texture. It seems right that a number of any top 10 Irish novels should address the emotional and physical violence that formed modern Ireland. And always the clear, cool and nervous voice of Bowen herself comes through the fog of years as it does in all her novels. In that anxious gloaming, relationships advance and retreat like sad and fearful dancers some have possibilities, some never had, some will cause death. The year is 1920 Sir Richard Naylor and his family await in their great house the final onslaught of the 'Risen People' - meaning that the twilight of the Anglo-Irish has begun to fall as the native Irish begin to take back their land. The Last September by Elizabeth BowenĬhosen as much to represent Bowen rather than merely for the novel's own powers. Above all he taught every writer the importance of naturalistic dialogue with his fine tenor voice Joyce knew better than most that we read not with the eye but with the ear. Every literary style was mist to his grill, as he might have said, and his plotting, if such it can be called - two men who take all day to meet each other - paved the way for, among others, Samuel Beckett.

Joyce hammered a job on the novel so complete that he became a category unto himself.

On another day in another room in another town my top 10 Irish novels might be different - but there are 'given' novels, the bibles of the country, without which no reader worthy of the nationality 'Irish' can proceed.

Ireland by Frank Delaney