Michael Irwin

First published in 1979. Most of the great nineteenth century novelists strove to render in words the people and places that they invented and most readers of fiction picture in their imagination these characters and scenes. This book investigates both types of ‘picturing’, exploring the principles and problems concerned, and sheds light on the workings of fiction — reassessing a number of famous novels in the process. By so doing, this work relates the academic study of the novel to the writing and reading of fiction, and the teaching of creative writing. This book will appeal to students of literature.

First published in 1979. Most of the great nineteenth century novelists strove to render in words the people and places that they invented and most readers of fiction picture in their imagination these characters and scenes. This book investigates both types of ‘picturing’, exploring the principles and problems concerned, and sheds light on the workings of fiction — reassessing a number of famous novels in the process. By so doing, this work relates the academic study of the novel to the writing and reading of fiction, and the teaching of creative writing. This book will appeal to students of literature.

Michael Irwin's The Skull and the Nightingale is a chilling and deliciously dark, literary novel of manipulation and sex, intrigue and seduction, set in 18th-century England. When Richard Fenwick returns to London, his wealthy godfather, James Gilbert, has an unexpected proposition. Gilbert has led a sedate life in Worcestershire, but feels the urge to experience, even vicariously, the extremes of human feeling: love, passion, and something much more sinister. It becomes apparent that Gilbert desires news filled with tales of carousing, flirtation, excess, and London's more salacious side. But Gilbert's elaborate and manipulative "experiments" into the workings of human behavior soon drag Richard into a Faustian vortex of betrayal and danger where lives are ruined and tragedy is only a step away. With echoes of Dangerous Liaisons, Michael Irwin's The Skull and the Nightingale is an urgent period drama that seduces the senses.

Set in England in the early 1760s, this is a chilling and deliciously dark tale of manipulation, sex, and seduction.

Children and Adolescents in Trauma presents a variety of creative approaches to working with young people in residential children's homes, secure or psychiatric units, and special schools. The contributors describe a wide range of approaches, including art therapy and literature, and how creative methods are applied in cases of abuse, trauma, violence, self-harm and identity development. They discuss the impact of abuse and mistreatment upon the mental health of 'looked after' children, drawing links between psychoanalytic theory and practice and the study of literature and the arts. This indispensable book provides useful insights and a fresh perspective for anyone working with traumatised children and adolescents, including social workers, psychotherapists, arts therapists, psychiatrists, counsellors, psychologists and students in these fields.