Country Days - Softcover

Alice Taylor lives in the village of Innishannon in County Cork, in a house attached to the local supermarket and post office. Since her eldest son has taken over responsibility for the shop, she has been able to devote more time to her writing.

Alice Taylor worked as a telephonist in Killarney and Bandon. When she married, she moved to Innishannon where she ran a guesthouse at first, then the supermarket and post office. She and her husband, Gabriel Murphy, who sadly passed away in 2005, had four sons and one daughter. In 1984 she edited and published the first issue of Candlelight, a local magazine which has since appeared annually. In 1986 she published an illustrated collection of her own verse.

To School Through the Fields was published in May 1988. It was an immediate success, and quickly became the biggest selling book ever published in Ireland. It launched Alice on a series of signing sessions, talks and readings the length and breadth of Ireland. Her first radio interview, forty two minutes long on RTÉ Radio's Gay Byrne Show, was the most talked about radio programme of 1988, and her first television interview, of the same length, was the highlight of the year on RTÉ television's Late Late Show. Since then she has appeared on radio programmes such as Woman's Hour, Midweek and The Gloria Hunniford Show, and she has been the subject of major profiles in the Observer and the Mail on Sunday.

Alice has written nearly twenty books since then, large exploring her village of Inishannon, and the way of life in rural Ireland. She has also written poetry and fiction: her first novel, The Woman of the House, was an immediate bestseller in Ireland, topping the paperback fiction lists for many weeks.

One of Ireland's most popular authors, her most recent book is And Life Lights Up.

Country Days

Alice Taylor, who brought us the bestselling To School through the Fields, And Time Stood Still, The Women, and many other wonderful books, opens the door to her life in all its variety and whimsy.

She warmly remembers her teenage years and school life. Later, she revisits an old friend and rekindles a strong friendship. She writes of her sadness on the burial of her father. We follow her to Listowel for the Literary Festival, through the challenges of a pilgrimage to Lough Derg and the easy charms of the annual family holiday to Ballybunion.

Alice’s people and her places are the ground on which this book rests. Her genius for capturing the essence of Irish country life shines through.

‘A rich patchwork of tales and reminiscences.’ The Daily Telegraph

‘A storyteller supreme.’ Irish Examiner