Lucy Caldwell – författare

'Exhilarating, devastating, comforting, essential' CLAIRE KILROY'These are stories which sing off the page' JAN CARSON'Powerful, compelling and richly crafted' MARY COSTELLO'Profoundly intimate' TAHMIMA ANAMThe highly-anticipated new collection from the BBC National Short Story Award-winning author of Multitudes, Intimacies and Openings'There must be moments when we let go - let go of all that we do, all that we are.'A young Belfast theatre troupe brings its experimental production of Hamlet to New York.On a night-flight, travelling with a violin older than the United States, a professional musician slips through time. A man who loses all he thought he had, and finds himself haunted by all he never will, comes to a painful new understanding of what it might mean to love.Transporting and profound, these are stories of love, grief, longing, of new beginnings, and the ways we find shelter in each other.'One of our best short story writers' THE TIMES'[Caldwell] holds the reader right up against the tender humanity of her characters' EIMEAR McBRIDE'A next-level author of short stories' THE HERALD

We are where we come from?' That's not true. That's not true because if that's true there's no hope for any of us.Lori is coming home from her first term at university. It's only been a few weeks and already things have gone badly wrong. But none of the rest of the family knows, or understands, what really happened.In this fiercely observed family drama, three teenage girls struggle to define who they are, and why, and where they might be going.Leaves won the George Devine Award 2006, the premier award for new writing by an emerging playwright in the UK and Ireland. The play opened at the Druid Theatre, Galway in March 2007 before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London.

When Euan and Ruth set off with their young daughter to live in Bahrain, it is meant to be an experience and adventure they will cherish. But on the night they arrive, Ruth discovers the truth behind the missionary work Euan has planned and feels her world start to crumble. Far from home, and with events spiralling towards war in nearby Iraq, she starts to question her faith - in Euan, in their marriage and in all she has held dear.With Euan so often away, she is confined to their guarded compound with her neighbours and, in particular, Noor, a troubled teenager recently returned to Bahrain to live with her father. Confronted by temptations and doubt, each must make choices that could change all of their lives for ever.Compelling, passionate and deeply resonant, The Meeting Point is a novel about idealism and innocence, about the unexpected turns life can take and the dangers and chances that await us.

When Euan and Ruth set off with their young daughter to live in Bahrain, it is meant to be an experience and adventure they will cherish. But on the night they arrive, Ruth discovers the truth behind the missionary work Euan has planned and feels her world start to crumble. Far from home, and with events spiralling towards war in nearby Iraq, she starts to question her faith - in Euan, in their marriage and in all she has held dear.With Euan so often away, she is confined to their guarded compound with her neighbours and, in particular, Noor, a troubled teenager recently returned to Bahrain to live with her father. Confronted by temptations and doubt, each must make choices that could change all of their lives for ever.Compelling, passionate and deeply resonant, The Meeting Point is a novel about idealism and innocence, about the unexpected turns life can take and the dangers and chances that await us.

When Lara was twelve, and her younger brother Alfie eight, their father died in a helicopter crash. A prominent plastic surgeon, and Irishman, he had honed his skills on the bomb victims of the Troubles. But the family grew up used to him being absent: he only came to London for two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic, where he met their mother years before, and they only once went on a family holiday together, to Spain, where their mother cried and their father lost his temper and left early.Because home, for their father, wasn't Earls Court: it was Belfast, where he led his other life...Narrated by Lara, nearing forty and nursing her dying mother, All the Beggars Riding is the heartbreaking portrait of a woman confronting her past just as she realises that time is running out

When Lara was twelve, and her younger brother Alfie eight, their father died in a helicopter crash. A prominent plastic surgeon, and Irishman, he had honed his skills on the bomb victims of the Troubles. But the family grew up used to him being absent: he only came to London for two weekends a month to work at the Harley Street Clinic, where he met their mother years before, and they only once went on a family holiday together, to Spain, where their mother cried and their father lost his temper and left early.Because home, for their father, wasn't Earls Court: it was Belfast, where he led his other life...Narrated by Lara, nearing forty and nursing her dying mother, All the Beggars Riding is the heartbreaking portrait of a woman confronting her past just as she realises that time is running out

Sophie and Calliope have never been to school. Their mum ran away from home when she was seventeen to join the New Age movement and the girls were raised in a series of ashrams, communes and impromptu raves.When Sophie gets ill, they return to Birmingham - a strange new world where meditation and tree-hugging are replaced with maths homework and TV and the grandmother they have never met. And it's against this bewildering new backdrop - the normality she's always longed for - that Sophie must come to terms with her mortality.Lucy Caldwell's Notes to Future Self opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in February 2011.

Judy's my mom. It's an understatement to say she's a bit of a hippy. I mean who else but a New Ager calls their baby 'Philosophy Rainbow'? I try to go by 'Sophie'.Sophie and Calliope have never been to school. Their mum ran away from home when she was seventeen to join the New Age movement and the girls were raised in a series of ashrams, communes and impromptu raves.When Sophie gets ill, they return to Birmingham - a strange new world where meditation and tree-hugging are replaced with maths homework and TV and the grandmother they have never met. And it's against this bewildering new backdrop - the normality she's always longed for - that Sophie must come to terms with her mortality.Lucy Caldwell's Notes to Future Self opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in February 2011.

'A lively, humane book, gritty but wholehearted.' Colin Barrett, Irish Times'One of the finest short-story writers at work today.' Wendy Erskine'Exhilarating.' Sunday Times'Brilliant.' Sunday Business PostFrom Belfast to London and back again, the eleven stories in Lucy Caldwell's acclaimed first collection chronicle the heartache, joy, and tenderness of growing up.With lives caught in the suspense of transition - between city and country; between the in crowd and the out; between home and escape; between love and loneliness - Multitudes culminates with the heart-wrenching and unforgettable title story, as a young woman goes through her first labour and the traumatic days that follow.Deeply affecting, intimate and yet resonant, these are stories that squeeze right into the fractures that end up shaping the course of lives.

'Beautifully crafted, and so finely balanced that she holds the reader right up against the tender humanity of her characters.' Eimear McBride'A writer of rare elegance and beauty, Caldwell doesn't just get inside her characters' minds. She perches in the precarious chambers of their hearts, telling their stories truthfully and tenderly.' IndependentMultitudes is the beautiful debut story collection from the acclaimed, prize-winning novelist and playwright Lucy CaldwellFrom Belfast to London and back again the ten stories that comprise Caldwell's first collection explore the many facets of growing up - the pain and the heartache, the tenderness and the joy, the fleeting and the formative - or 'the drunkenness of things being various'. Stories of longing and belonging, they culminate with the heart-wrenching and unforgettable title story.

WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTIONWINNER OF THE E. M. FORSTER AWARDAS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4s BOOK AT BEDTIMETwo sisters. Four nights. One City.April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war - so far. Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey - one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman - as they try to survive the horrors of the Belfast Blitz, These Days is an unforgettable novel about lives lived under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves'Brilliantly evokes wartime love and heartbreak.' Guardian'Breathtakingly good. A novel of enormous heart; full of luminous passages of prose.' Observer'Meticulously researched, perfectly imagined, full of compassion and emotional truth.' CLARE CHAMBERS

WINNER OF THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTIONWINNER OF THE E. M. FORSTER AWARDAS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4s BOOK AT BEDTIMETwo sisters. Four nights. One City.April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war - so far. Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey - one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman - as they try to survive the horrors of the Belfast Blitz, These Days is an unforgettable novel about lives lived under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves'Brilliantly evokes wartime love and heartbreak.' Guardian'Breathtakingly good. A novel of enormous heart; full of luminous passages of prose.' Observer'Meticulously researched, perfectly imagined, full of compassion and emotional truth.' CLARE CHAMBERS

We are where we come from?' That's not true. That's not true because if that's true there's no hope for any of us.Lori is coming home from her first term at university. It's only been a few weeks and already things have gone badly wrong. But none of the rest of the family knows, or understands, what really happened.In this fiercely observed family drama, three teenage girls struggle to define who they are, and why, and where they might be going.Leaves won the George Devine Award 2006, the premier award for new writing by an emerging playwright in the UK and Ireland. The play opened at the Druid Theatre, Galway in March 2007 before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre, London.

*Includes the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award*'A tremendous collection.' KEVIN BARRY'Smart, nuanced and sometimes heart-stopping.' ANNE ENRIGHT'Outstanding.' GUARDIAN'Eleven perfect stories.' IRISH INDEPENDENT'Glorious.' TIMES'My FAVE collection ever.' PANDORA SYKES"Eleven perfect stories" (Irish Independent) that chart the steps and missteps of young women trying to find their place in the world, including the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award.From a Belfast student ordering illegal drugs online to end an unwanted pregnancy to a young mother's brush with mortality; from a Christmas Eve walking the city centre streets when everything seems possible, to a night flight from Canada which could change a life irrevocably, these are stories of love, loss and exile, of new beginnings and lives lived away from "home".Taking in, too, the lives of other women who could be guiding lights-from Monica Lewinsky to Caroline Norton to Sinéad O'Connor - Intimacies offers keenly felt and subtly revealing insights into the heartbreak and hope of modern life.

*Includes the winner of the 2021 BBC National Short Story Award*'Outstanding.' Guardian'Eleven perfect stories.' Irish Independent'Glorious.' The Times'My FAVE collection ever.' Pandora SykesIn eleven stories, Intimacies exquisitely charts the steps and missteps of young women trying to find their place in the world. From a Belfast student ordering illegal drugs online to end an unwanted pregnancy to a young mother's brush with mortality, and from a Christmas Eve walking the city centre streets when everything seems possible, to a night flight from Canada which could change a life irrevocably, these are stories of love, loss and exile, of new beginnings and lives lived away from 'home'.'Embedded in these stories are exquisite, often moving descriptions where everyday moments mix with the monumental.' Financial Times

'One of the finest short-storywriters at work today. These stories are honest, finely nuanced and indelible in their impact.'WENDY ERSKINE'One of our best short story writers.' THE TIMES'You'll lose yourself in this collection and, most likely, find yourself too. Each story is a masterclass in attentiveness.'JAN CARSONThe much-anticipated new collection from the BBC National Short Story Award-winning author of Multitudes and Intimacies.I still sometimes wonder if one could draw a window in the wall, or in the air, and step through it together. To somewhere else, entirely new.From a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the thirteen striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life.'It takes a writer as subtle, compassionate and clear-eyed as Caldwell to track the hidden forces that work upon us, to illuminate our secret selves. This is prose that liberates.'CLAIRE KILROY'Caldwell has a glorious skill for creating narratives in which every element works in perfect tandem.'SUNDAY TIMES

'One of the finest short-storywriters at work today.' WENDY ERSKINE'One of our best short story writers.' THE TIMES'Each story is a masterclass.' JAN CARSONThe much-anticipated new collection from the BBC National Short Story Award-winning author of Multitudes and Intimacies.I still sometimes wonder if one could draw a window in the wall, or in the air, and step through it together. To somewhere else, entirely new.From a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast to a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the thirteen striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life.'It takes a writer as subtle, compassionate and clear-eyed as Caldwell to track the hidden forces that work upon us, to illuminate our secret selves. This is prose that liberates.' CLAIRE KILROY'Caldwell has a glorious skill for creating narratives in which every element works in perfect tandem.'SUNDAY TIMES