Hill can evoke a setting, convey the essence of a situation and let one see into the inmost hearts of her character in a paragraph or even a single sentence

Hill's sentences speak eloquently...the pleasure to be had from [these] stories lies in their carefulness: memories are exactly sustained, small gifts are valued, little words are listened to

Hill's stories evoke place, situation and complex emotions with enviable economy... Masterly

Simple and mesmeric prose

These very strange, beautiful tales demonstrate a relentless capacity to surprise... The Boy Who Taught the Beekeeper to Read introduces many individual people who will continue to stare back at the reader long after the book is closed

Doyle's writing seems so natural, so effortless that I sometimes think we overlook how good it is

Doyle snaps entire lives into sharp focus in a handful of pages, which is short fiction doing what short fiction does best

These rather tender-hearted sketches of how men get old in contemporary Ireland may not be autobiographical but they're true; they come from life as lived

Insightful collection of stories

A muted celebration of everday life and its consolations

Fans of Doyle's work will doubtless find much to celebrate in Bullfighting

This collection is brilliant: very funny, but also tragic and tender

Quite frankly, this is one of the most accurately observed books on human life I've come across and it's well worth a look

A collection of short stories musing on the masculine midlife crisis

These short stories flow beautifully yet there is something very sharp and crisp and understated here, too. You whizz through, then you read them again, and they’re even better the second time

Doyle balances humour with pathos