Undernose Farm Revisited

In this expanded edition of his original privately published

book of twelve stories published in December 2020, Harry

Crosbie adds a further sixteen tales from the Dublin of

his youth. Begun during lockdown, Harry harvested his

formidable memory and imagination to recreate city life

during the early 1960s, told through tales of the Dublin and

Dubliners who made up his hard-scrabble world.

John Banville wrote of the original volume, 'These

wonderfully direct and vivid tales catch the essence of Dublin

life half a century ago. They are by turns rambunctious

and touching, clear-eyed and accepting, warm though

never sentimental, and frequently hilarious.' Richard Ford

compared his work to the writings of Mark Twain, Ring

Lardner and Nelson Algren.

Crosbie has now fulfilled this promise with these fresh,

sparkling stories, each propelled by character, ambition,

need and greed, and suffused with humanity and wit. They

are peopled by family, down-at-heel aristocrats, antique

dealers and auctioneers, their background the river and

streetlife of mid-century Dublin, its pubs and cafes, homes

and institutions. Warm as coddle on a winter's night.

Each tale is nuanced, spare and perfectly pitched. Part

chamber music, part ballad and folktale, Undernose Farm

Revisited bears the stamp of literature in the making.