Author interview: Art and culture can save us, even in the most desperate of times

Every author crosses their fingers and hopes for the best when they send their debut novel out into the world, as they know there is no guarantee of its success. 

For the Irish writer Ferdia Lennon, the response to his book Glorious Exploits has been the stuff of dreams. 

The novel has already won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, been adapted for the BBC Radio Four book club, been a featured book club choice on the influential BBC show Between the Covers, and also been long-listed for the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize. 

On the morning we chat, it is announced that it has been long-listed for the Walter Scott Prize.

“One thing you realise when your book comes out is the amount of novels that get released in any given year,” says the Dubliner.  “So I definitely feel very fortunate.

“These prizes are a godsend in a way. If you are writing something a bit weird or different, they are a way for readers to go, ‘oh, let’s have a look at that’.”

There are a lot of great books that don’t get long-listed, so there is that element of luck.

Lennon’s modesty is endearing but in his case, it’s a matter of good fortune being backed up by serious talent. 

The ingenious premise of Glorious Exploits sets it apart from the start. 

The action unfolds in the ancient Sicilian town of Syracuse in 412BC during the Peloponnesian War, where the protagonists, lovesick Lampo and dreamer Gelon, recruit a group of Athenian slaves to stage their production of Euripides’ tragedies.

The other clever twist is Lennon’s use of the modern Irish vernacular throughout. It’s such a great pitch, where did it come from, I wonder.

“ChatGPT,” Lennon says, quickly assuring me it’s a joke. “It is based on a real historical moment, where the Athenians who had invaded Sicily were kept in these quarries as prisoners of war, and they did actually perform recitations from Euripides in order to survive.

“I knew I wanted to write about that, it was about trying to find a way into it, and when I did the first line in Lampo’s Dublin voice, something just clicked, that intuitive sense of, ‘this is it’. 

“And then I took a step back, because obviously a contemporary Dublin voice in an ancient Greek context seems bizarre. But why not?”

“These characters are also working class, they’re unemployed potters on the periphery of the Greek world, so they’re outsiders.

“They’re in Sicily, which had been colonised. So I thought the Hiberno English/Dublin voice actually made more sense. I also knew it would jolt the reader.”

The Tallaght native has been making waves in the world of literature since graduating with a masters in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia, which is what led him to his current home of Norwich, where he lives with his Limerick-born wife and their young son. 

He says the prestigious course was helpful in many ways but that it also emphasised the importance of staying true to his own voice and style.

“I brought in an early version of Glorious Exploits, and people were like, ‘why on earth are they sounding like they’re Irish?’. Put it in the bin, basically. 

“It was useful in retrospect, because you realise the importance of having your own vision, and sometimes you don’t need to get unanimity — you learn who to listen to and how often the most important person to follow is actually you.

“There were great things about the course. We did a workshop with Margaret Atwood, and having her reading your work was unbelievable.

“It definitely has a value but most important lessons I’ve learned as a writer have been about reading voraciously, analysing what I’ve read, following my own interests, and then writing a lot.”

A good course or programme can facilitate that; it can provide motivation and feedback, but it’s absolutely not essential.

Lennon is part of an exciting new generation of Irish writers continuing an extraordinary literary tradition and is very aware of those who have gone before him.

“What’s lovely as an Irish writer coming up is you can look at the people who’ve gone before you, whether it’s Joyce, Beckett, Anne Enright, Roddy Doyle, the list goes on and on.

“That you can just see these people who’ve achieved amazing things, produced great work, it seems to happen with every generation now, like Sally Rooney must be one of the biggest literary fiction writers in the world, and that creates a sense of possibility.” 

His fellow Dubliner Doyle has been a particularly big influence.

“I love Roddy Doyle’s work. When I think of Irish writers with working-class subjects that had a significant impact, he really changed things.

“He created a sense that these stories are worth telling in this kind of voice, in this kind of language, so I owe a debt to him.”

To capture the distinctive atmosphere and setting of Glorious Exploits, Lennon immersed himself in some literary world-building, including travelling to Sicily and Greece.

“So I read all the literature I could get my hands on from the period, all of the plays, all of the philosophy.

“I even read guide books from a couple of hundred years later that told you where to get a good meal in Athens.

“I went to Sicily and visited the quarries. I went to Athens and travelled around Greece.

“I read books on siege engines and food, city planning, all of that. There was lots of research that didn’t go into it but that informed the book.

“As the writer, you always want to know a lot more than you put in.

“There could be things below the surface that hopefully imbue what you’ve done with a density, even if you don’t state it.”

Glorious Exploits has been described as a book about how art and culture can save us, a theme that becomes more resonant by the day as wars and political turmoil beset the globe. Such threats to humanity are nothing new, as the book demonstrates.

“I think Thucydides put it best in the History of the Peloponnesian War. Trying to explain why he was spending so much time chronicling it in such detail, he said human nature, being what it is, such events would probably happen again and again in different ways.

“Unfortunately, if you write about themes of war and displacement, even if it’s set thousands of years ago, there will be a lot that has parallels with today.

“A lot of those parallels weren’t intentional, but they just happen.”

Lennon has a wonderfully dry sense of humour and it’s clear that he hasn’t let all the success and prize nominations go to his head. 

I ask him if he is working on a second novel and he jokingly replies: “To be honest, I am enjoying resting on these laurels at the moment.”

In fact, his next book is set in 14th century France in the context of the Hundred Years’ War and also the Black Death.

“A relaxing, enjoyable read,” he laughs. “It is not like Glorious Exploits, but there are definitely comedic elements to it.”

• The Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize shortlist will be announced on March 20. The winner’s ceremony will be held in Swansea on May 15