Sebastian Barry has rummaged through his own family history for his latest novel The Temporary Gentleman, which tells the story of an Irish serviceman stationed in Africa in the late 1950s. The Costa-winning writer talks to Maev Kennedy about the relationship between fact and fiction, and about a generation of Irish novelists lost to drink.
John Carey's life in literature has been rather more sober: the Oxford don and longtime doyen of British book-reviewing recounts a passion for reading that goes all the way back to a schoolboy obsession with Biggles.
Reading list:
The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry (Faber)
The Unexpected Professor by John Carey (Faber)
