Author:Brian Keenan
Local rather than international, the dramas and privations described in this memoir are not the stuff of headlines. This is the story of an ordinary boy growing up in Belfast after the war; an ordinary boy who would go on to become world-famous as a hostage in Beirut and author of the extraordinary testimony of imprisonment and survival that was An Evil Cradling.
Brian Keenan has captured the vanished world of 1950s Belfast in all its vivid vernacular and grey, post-war austerity. I'll Tell Me Ma is an affectionate story of a disaffected childhood. At the centre is a shy, self-conscious boy of unusual moral integrity; a boy puzzled by religion and sectarianism, in love with books and music and full of curiosity about the world outside. It is also a book about coming-to-terms with the past: a resounding, thrilling record of redemption.
Spirited, thoughtful, sensitive and robust ... this book is written with great discernment and aplomb
—— Patricia Craig , Irish TimesA masterpiece of self-interrogation
—— Tom Adair , ScotsmanA remarkable act of literary exorcism
—— Nick Rennison , Sunday TimesKeenan has acheived razor-sharp recall of seminal incidents in a childhood that was extraordinarily insightful. Searingly honest. Eloquent
—— HeraldWhat distinguishes this account is the writing
—— Tom O'Sullivan , Financial TimesHis story...is affectionally recalled from darkness to light
—— Iain Finlayson , The TimesFascinating book
—— Kathryn Hughes , Mail on SundaySkilfully evokes the dread that corsairs aroused
—— Ludovic Hunter-Tilney , Financial TimesTinniswood's artful blend of narrative and analysis brings the pirates' society to life. Beneath the vivid surface of this book there lie, sometimes obscured by the vividness, the careful investigation and astute judgement of one of the most incisive of our popular historians.
—— Blair Worden , SpectatorNorth African pirates were the scourge of the 17th century, and plundered as far as Cornwall. Tinniswood tells their story with verve
—— Keith Lowe , TelegraphThe author's style is an absolute joy and his stories of attacks, based in eyewitness accounts, make rather more thrilling than many fictional thrillers are... He also proves an even-handed judge. While there's no attempt to whitewash the privateers here, there are explanations of what caused men to turn their hand to conquering the seas.
—— Robert James , The Book BagThis well-researched history of piracy presents brutal seafaring extortionists instead of eye-patched rascals.
—— Benjamin Evans , Telegraph Seven MagazineTinniswood unearths colourful characters and historical oddities while pointing out that the West's inability to deal with Somali pirates show how little we've learned in 400 years
—— HeraldMeticulously researched history of unrestrained murder, robbery and kidnapping on the high seas... This is a brisk, entertaining story, with royal proclamations, letters, maps and lavishness illuminating Tinniswood's vivid tales.
—— Lorraine Courtney , Irish Times[He] has unearthed many colourful characters and historical oddities and uses eyewitness accounts to weave a fascinating tale
—— Chard & Ilminster NewsAn astounding story of bitter civil warfare that raged across many countries for decades. Butterworth's passionate account of the anarchist movements born in the late 19th century describes a conflict that spawned its own "war on terror"
—— Steve Burniston , Guardian
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